External Validation of the LabBM Score in Patients With Brain Metastases

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to validate the prognostic impact of the recently introduced three-tiered LabBM score in patients with brain metastases. In contrast to the previous development and validation cohorts, the present cohort did not include patients treated with primary surgery and/or radiosurgery. The score is based on hemoglobin, platelet counts, albumin, C-reactive protein and lactate dehydrogenase. METHODS: This was a retrospective single institution analysis. Overall, 167 patients managed with first-line whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) were identified from a prospectively maintained database. RESULTS: The LabBM score significantly predicted overall survival (median 4.0, 2.9 and 1.5 months, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: The LabBM score is also valid in a patient population that differs from the previously studied cohorts, that is patients who were judged to be better candidates for WBRT than surgery or radiosurgery. As these patients in general represent a less favorable subset, their median survival was shorter than reported in the development cohort (11, 7 and 3 months, respectively). Future studies should examine whether or not combinations of the LabBM and other scores, for example, lung-molGPA and melanoma-molGPA, improve the clinical value of single scores.