Radiosurgery in the treatment of malignant brain tumors

Brain metastases are an attractive target for radiosurgery. Over a period of 6 years, 400 patients with brain metastases have been treated with radiosurgery. Of these patients, 61% had solitary brain metastases and 39% had multiple brain metastases. Local control was achieved in 90% and improvement of severe neurological symptoms in 76%. The median survival time was 8 months. The significant prognostic factors for survival in patients with solitary brain metastases were age, Karnofsky performance status, severity of symptoms, extent of progressive malignant disease outside the brain, histology, interval between diagnosis of primary tumor and brain metastasis, and minimum applied dosage. The significant prognostic factors in patients with multiple brain metastases were sex, Karnofsky performance status and presence of progressive disease outside the brain.