Palliative Gamma knife in treating elderly patients with brain metastasis / 中华神经医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the therapeutic effect of Gamma knife radiosurgery (GKRS) on patients aged ≥65 years who presented with brain metastasis. Methods The clinical treatment and follow-up data of 134 patients,admitted to and treated with GKRS in our hospital from March 2004 to March 2010,were analyzed.These 134 patients totally underwent 212 GKRS for 403 metastases.The median maximal and marginal doses were (29.3±8.4) Gy and (15.9±4.8) Gy,respectively.Kaplan-Meier survivor analysis was utilized to calculate the median survive time and multivariate analysis was employed to determine the clinical factors influencing the treatment outcome. Results Of the 372 metastasis followed by imaging,complete response was achieved in 66 lesions (17.7％),partial response in 174 lesions (46.8％),no change in 94 lesions (25.3％),and partial progression in 38 lesions (10.2％).Median survival was 10.9 months.Grade of recursive partitioning analysis (RPA),number of tumors,scores of Karnofsky performance scale (KPS) and status of primary malignancies were found to be factors influencing the efficacy (P＜0.05). Conclusion GKRS for patients aged over 65 years with brain metastases is an effective and safe treatment method that appears to improve survival and is helpful in maintaining relative good life quality in selected population