Clinical features and prognostic factors in 190 cancer patients with brain metastases

BACKGROUND: Brain metastases significantly reduce the survival of cancer patients. However, detailed researches on the clinical manifestations and prognoses of patients with brain metastases are lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical features and prognostic factors of cancer patients with brain metastases. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted on patients with brain metastases who were treated in our hospital between January 2014 and January 2019. Comparison of overall survival (OS) was performed by the Kaplan-Meier method. Multivariate Cox regression models was used to identify prognostic factors for OS. RESULTS: A total of 190 patients with complete data and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (ECOG PS) 0–2 were enrolled. Patients with brain metastases from different primary sites had significantly different survival time (P=0.001). Patients who had a longer survival time included female patients (47.4%) (34 vs. 19 months, P=0.002), those with age <65 years (63.7%) (29 vs. 18 months, P=0.002), with ECOG 0 or 1 (44.2%) (32 vs. 21 months, P=0.005), with ≤3 brain lesions (61.1%) (29 vs. 20 months, P=0.041), and with small molecular targeted therapy (48.4%) (21 vs. 18 months, P=0.006). Furthermore, multivariate analysis revealed that female, age <65 years, ≤3 brain lesions, small molecular targeted therapy were independent favorable prognostic factors of OS. CONCLUSIONS: Female, younger patients with ≤3 brain metastases predicted a better survival. To improve the poor outcomes of these patients, it is necessary to find clinically significant genetic abnormalities and administer the small molecular targeted therapy early in the course of treatment.