Epidemiology Of Brain Metastases in Iranian Cancer Patients Attending a Gamma-Knife Center

Parisa Azimi, Sohrab Shahzadi, Mohammad Ali Bitaraf, Maziar Azar, Mazdak Alikhani, Alireza Zali, Sohrab Sadeghi, Ali Montazeri

Abstract


Background: This study aimed to investigate about epidemiology of brain metastases using information from the Iranian Gamma-knife Centre.

Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective study. In all 5216 case records of patients who referred to the Iranian Gamma-knife Centre for treatment of brain tumors during year 2003 to 2011 were reviewed. Data were explored to find out brain metastases due to cancer and assess the information as applied to cancer patients including survival analysis.

Results: Two hundred and twenty patients were identified as having brain metastases due to cancer. The mean age of patients were 54.0 (SD = 12.7) years and were followed for an average of 7 months after treatment with Gamma-knife. The median survival times for the GPA were: GPA 0–1, 4±0.4 months; GPA 1.5–2.5, 6±0.7 months; GPA 3, 9±0.9 months; and GPA 3.5–4.0, 12±1.8 months and overall survival were 7.0 (SD = 0.6) months.

Conclusion: The findings suggest that many cancer patients in Iran might develop brain metastasis. Although this is not a very high incidence compared to the existing statistics from other countries, there is urgent need to explore the issue further.

 Keywords: Brain metastases; Epidemiology; Iran; Gamma-knife