Radiosurgery as palliation for brain metastases: a retrospective review of 72 patients harboring multiple lesions at presentation.

Object: The purpose of this study was to determine the outcome of palliative gamma knife radiosurgery (GKS) in a group of poor-risk patients with multiple brain metastases.

Methods: The medical records of 72 patients with multiple brain metastases treated with GKS between October 1993 and November 9, 2001, were reviewed retrospectively. All patients presented with more than 10 lesions. There were 26 men and 46 women. The median age was 60 years (range 24-84 years). There were 39 patients with lung cancer, 18 with breast cancer, nine with metastatic melanomas, two with metastatic renal cell carcinomas, and four with other primary tumors. A total of 147 treatment sessions were required to treat 1304 sites in 72 patients. A mean of 10.4 isocenters per treatment was used. The mean tumor volume was 1.7 cm3. All patients had extracranial disease. The variables included in this study were the patient's Karnofsky Performance Scale score, age, sex, the radiation dose, initial number of lesions, and tumor volume and histopathology.

Conclusions: Radiosurgery can be a powerful tool in the palliative management of advanced metastatic disease even in patients presenting with multiple brain metastases. A median of two outpatient treatments was required, allowing the advanced cancer patient to avoid protracted fractionated radiotherapy and to undergo other therapeutic treatment with an acceptable quality of life.