| The following article features coverage from the ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer 2018 meeting. Click here to read more of Cancer Therapy Advisor‘s conference coverage. |
Patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) are more likely to develop brain metastases if their disease is located within the rectum or they develop lung metastases, according to a cohort study presented at the ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer 2018.1
Approximately 2% to 4% of patients with CRC will develop brain metastasis, and survival is typically only a few months. The aim of this study by researchers in Aarhus, Denmark, was to determine the survival outcomes of patients with CRC after local therapy for brain metastases.
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The analysis included data from 38,131 patients from the Danish Cancer Registry and the Danish National Patient Registry who underwent surgery for CRC between 2000 and 2013. Of these patients, 235 (0.6%) underwent curative local therapy for brain metastases, including resection, stereotactic body radiotherapy, or both in combination.
Brain metastases were more common among CRC patients with cancer on or in the rectum or with lung metastases. Rectal cancer was present among 36% of patients in the larger CRC cohort compared with 49% with brain metastases (P < .001). Similarly, lung metastases were present among 3% of patients in the larger CRC cohort compared with 12% in the brain metastases cohort (P < .001).
Patients with brain metastases treated with local therapy with curative intent had a median overall survival (OS) of 0.8 years (95% CI, 0.6-0.9 years) and the 1- and 5-year OS rates were 41.7% and 12.7%, respectively.
The authors stated that these results suggest that patients with CRC located within the rectum or with lung metastases are at a greater risk of brain metastasis. They also noted that there is a small subset of patients with brain metastases treated with localized therapy that experienced long-term survival.
Read more of Cancer Therapy Advisor‘s coverage of the ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer 2018 meeting by visiting the conference page.
Reference
- Boysen A, Ording A, Astradsson A, et al. Survival following curative indented treatment of brain metastases from colorectal cancer: A Danish population-based cohort study. Ann Oncol. 2018;29 (suppl 5;abstr PD-014):v96. doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdy149.013
