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Updated: Sep 16, 2025
Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Gynecologic Cancer
Published on: April 17, 2012
Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Patients with Brain Metastases from Sarcomas
Andrew Hoang1, Zhishuo Wei1,2,3, Constantinos G Hadjipanayis1,2,3
1School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
Purpose:
We present our single-institution experience of sarcomatous brain metastasis patients who underwent stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) over the past 35 years.
Methods:
In total, 31 patients (16 males) who underwent SRS for sarcoma brain metastases were identified. Median age at presentation to SRS was 47 (range: 4-78) months. Common histopathologies included leiomyosarcoma (eight patients), osteosarcoma (six patients), alveolar sarcoma (three patients), Ewing sarcoma (three patients), and undifferentiated/unclassified sarcoma (three patients). The median Karnofsky Performance Score (KPS) was 90. Nine patients underwent pre-SRS craniotomy. The median dose prescribed was 18 Gy. The median cumulative tumor volume was 1.4 cc.
Results:
Median patient overall survival (OS) after SRS was 7 (range: 0-155) months. Local tumor control (LTC) was achieved in 105 out of 113 tumors, at a median time of 3 (range: 0-17) months between SRS and progression. LTC rates per patient and per tumor were 74.2% and 92.9%, respectively. Following SRS, 10 patients (32.3%) developed new tumors at a median time of 6 (range: 1-25) months. Four patients experienced adverse radiation effects (AREs). At the last follow-up, all patients died, one patient from intracranial progression, 27 from systemic disease progression, and the remaining from unrelated medical conditions.
Conclusions:
Given high LTC and low ARE rates, this suggests SRS as a strong candidate for the non-invasive management of sarcomatous brain metastases, which typically present late following initial presentation of the primary disease.
