Pre-Treatment Seizures in Patients With 1-3 Cerebral Metastases Receiving Local Therapies Plus Whole-brain Radiotherapy

Background/aim: Seizures impair patients' quality of life. The prognostic role of pre-treatment seizures in patients with 1-3 cerebral metastases receiving local therapies plus whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) was investigated.

Patients and methods: In 249 patients, prevalence, risk factors and associations of pre-treatment seizures with survival were retrospectively evaluated. Age, gender, performance score, tumor type, number of lesions, extra-cerebral metastases, and time from tumor diagnosis to treatment of cerebral metastasis were analyzed for associations with seizures. These characteristics and pre-treatment seizures were also analyzed for associations with survival.

Results: The prevalence of pre-treatment seizures was 24.1%. Trends for associations were found between seizures and gender or performance score. On multivariate analysis, age (p=0.008), performance score (p=0.004), tumor type (p<0.001) and extra-cerebral metastasis (p<0.001) were significantly associated with survival.

Conclusion: Seizures were comparably common prior to local therapies plus WBRT for cerebral metastases. No factor was found to be significantly associated with seizures, and seizures were not associated with survival.

Keywords: Seizures; cerebral metastasis; local therapies; prevalence; risk factors; survival.