Impact of pre-OP independence in patients with limited brain metastases on long-term survival

BACKGROUND: Brain metastasis represents a major complication with a significantly shorter overall survival of many oncological diseases, in particular of lung cancer, breast cancer and malignant melanoma patients. However, despite the poor prognosis, sometimes clinical decision-making, between on the one hand not to harm the patient and on the other hand not withholding a potential therapeutic option, is very challenging. Thus the aim of this retrospective study was to compare various scores, including scores for activities of daily living (ADL) before resection of brain metastases and to analyse their impact on survival. METHODS: Our single institution retrospective patient cohort (N = 100) with a median age of 63.6 years, which had all undergone resection of one or more brain metastases, was categorized using the original patient files. The cohort includes 52 patients with lung cancer, 27 patients with breast cancer, 8 patients with colorectal carcinoma and 13 patients with kidney cancer. To categorize, we used different score systems which were capable to evaluate the patient in relation to self-sufficiency, activity and self-determination as part of ADL. The retrospective analysis includes the ECOG-Status, Karnofsky-Index, Barthel-Index, ASA-Classification and Katz-Index. Pre-processing and the analysis of the data was implemented using KNIME, where we used the R-plugin nodes to perform the final statistical tests with R. RESULTS: Our analysis reveals that most of the ADL scores we tested are able to give a reliable prediction on overall survival after brain metastasis surgery. The survival rates decrease significantly with a lower score in all tested score systems, with the exception of the ASA-Risk score. In particular, the Katz Index < 6 was identified to have a significant correlation with a lower cancer specific survival (CSS) (HR 3.33, 95%-CI [2.17–5.00]; p-Value = 9.6*10(− 9)), which is easy to use and has reproducible measurements. CONCLUSIONS: Pre-operative independence assessment by indices of ADL represents a predictor for overall survival after resection of brain metastases. Especially the easily, objectively and rapidly applicable Katz-Score is a very helpful tool to assess the pre-operative status, which could be additionally included in clinical decision making in daily practice.