Could intracranial tumor volume predict prognosis of patients with brain metastases from esophageal carcinoma?

PURPOSE: A previous study demonstrated that intracranial tumor volume had some correlation with gastrointestinal cancer patients' outcome. The aim of this study was to analyze patients with esophageal carcinoma (EC) and brain metastases to investigate if intracranial tumor volume would be a predictor of these patients' survival. METHODS: A total of 52 patients with brain metastases from esophageal squamous cell carcinoma or esophageal adenocarcinoma were retrospectively reviewed. Patients without images of brain metastases in the hospital information system were eliminated. RESULTS: The median follow‐up time duration was 8.4 months (interquartile range 4.0–15.2). The median overall survival (OS) from time of brain metastases diagnosis was 8.0 months for all cases. Median OS of patients with small and large cumulative intracranial tumor volume (CITV) (<6.65 cm(3), ≥6.65 cm(3)) was 11.23 and 7.4 months, respectively. Median OS of patients with large and small largest intracranial tumor volume (LITV) (≥7.75 cm(3), <7.75 cm(3)) was 6.4 and 10.6 months, respectively. Univariate analysis demonstrated that CITV (hazard ratio [HR] 1.255, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.673–2.342, p = 0.475) or LITV (HR 1.037, 95% CI 0.570–1.887, p = 0.904) was not significantly associated with improved OS. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that CITV and LITV were not significantly associated with improved OS. CONCLUSION: EC patients with small intracranial tumor volume may have longer OS than those with large intracranial tumor volume, but this difference did not reach statistical difference. Future studies with a larger sample size may validate the correlation of intracranial tumor volume and patient survival.