Stereotactic radiosurgery for the treatment of brain metastases; results from a single institution experience

Stereotactic radiosurgery is frequently used for the treatment of brain metastases. This study provides a retrospective evaluation of patients with secondary lesions of the brain treated with stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) at our institution. To provide outcome data from a single institutional experience with SRS and identify any significant prognostic factors in the cohort. Sixty-seven patients received first time SRS to 86 intracranial metastases between 2007 and 2010. Sixteen patients were excluded from this study due to the absence of post-treatment neuroimaging, resulting in 51 patients with 64 treated lesions. Of these patients, 37 (72.5 %) received SRS electively, while 14 (27.5 %) received salvage SRS after brain metastasis progression following whole brain radiotherapy. Median survival for the entire group was 15 months from the date of radiosurgery. Patients without active extracranial disease had statistically significant survival time than those with active extracranial disease (P = 0.03). 45 (70.3 %) lesions achieved local tumour control in 34 patients (66.7 %) with a mean follow-up period of 10.7 months (range 1.7-33.6 months, 95 % confidence interval 6.6-9.8 months). The results reported in this study equate to those reported in other series consolidating SRS as an effective treatment option with few serious complications. Developments in systemic disease control will see further improvements in overall survival.