PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - DIRK RADES AU - JASPAR WITTELER AU - LIESA DZIGGEL AU - TROELS W. KJAER AU - SOEREN TVILSTED AU - STEVEN E. SCHILD TI - Seizures Prior to Whole-brain Irradiation for Metastatic Disease: Prevalence, Risk Factors and Association With Survival AID - 10.21873/anticanres.14328 DP - 2020 Jun 01 TA - Anticancer Research PG - 3429--3434 VI - 40 IP - 6 4099 - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/40/6/3429.short 4100 - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/40/6/3429.full SO - Anticancer Res2020 Jun 01; 40 AB - Background/Aim: Seizures are a serious condition for patients with brain metastases. Prevalence, risk factors and a potential association of seizures with survival prior to whole-brain irradiation (WBI) for cerebral metastases were retrospectively investigated. Patients and Methods: In 1,934 patients, the prevalence of pre-treatment seizures (pre-WBI) was determined. Seven pre-treatment characteristics were evaluated for associations with seizures. Ten characteristics including pre-treatment symptoms (none vs. seizures only vs. seizures+others vs. others only) and seizures (yes vs. no) were analyzed for survival. Results: In 251 patients (13.0%), pre-treatment seizures were documented. The occurrence of seizures was significantly associated with 1-3 brain metastases and lack of extra-cerebral spread. On multivariate analysis, age, gender, performance score, number of metastases and extra-cerebral spread were significantly associated with survival; pre-treatment symptoms and seizures showed associations on univariate but not on multivariate analyses. Conclusion: Few brain metastases and lack of extra-cerebral spread were independent risk factors for pre-treatment seizures. Seizures appeared positively associated with survival.