Risk and prognosis for brain metastasis in primary metastatic cervical cancer patients: A population-based study

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the risk and prognostic factors of stage IVB cervical cancer with brain metastasis from a population-based database, the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER).

Cervical cancer patients initially diagnosed with brain metastasis between 2010 and 2019 were included in this study. The risk factors of developing brain metastasis were evaluated by logistic regression model with corresponding 95% confidence interval (95% CI). Survival analysis was performed through the Kaplan-Meier method, log-rank test, and Cox proportional hazards model.

A total of 88 (88/25,476, 0.35%) cervical cancer patients initially diagnosed with brain metastasis between 2010 and 2019 were retrieved. Accompanied with lung, bone, or liver metastasis (all P < 0.001) was shown to be independent risk factors for developing brain metastasis. Patients with brain metastasis indicated a poor prognosis (P < 0.001, hazards ratio [HR] = 2.84, 95% CI = 1.71-4.72) with a 2.84-fold elevated risk of death compared with patients without brain metastasis. The median survival month for patients with brain metastasis was 6 months, which is much shorter compared with the lung (9 months) or liver (8.5 months) or bone (11 months) metastasis group. Along with lower tumor grade (P = 0.001, HR = 0.27, 95% CI = 0.09-0.76) and with bone metastasis (P = 0.007, HR = 2.74, 95% CI = 1.33-5.67) demonstrated poor overall survival outcomes in patients with brain metastasis, with a 3.7- and 1.33-fold higher risk of death, respectively. In terms of treatment modality, chemoradiotherapy tended to prolong the survival of stage IVB cervical cancer patients with brain metastasis (P = 0.001, HR = 0.17, 95% CI = 0.06-0.48), with an 83% reduction in the risk of death.

In conclusion, the prognosis of stage IVB cervical cancer patients with brain metastasis remains poor. Chemoradiotherapy may provide survival benefits, which deserves large-scale prospective clinical trials to confirm.