Cancer Res Treat.  2011 Sep;43(3):160-169.

Clinical Analysis for Brain Tumor-Related Epilepsy during Chemotherapy for Systemic Cancer with Single Brain Metastasis

• Kim YZ
• Lee EH
• Lee KS

Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this prospective observational study was to determine the incidence, patterns, and predisposing factors for brain tumor-related epilepsy (BTRE) during chemotherapy for systemic cancer with single brain metastasis (BM).
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Between February 2006 and June 2010, 103 patients who underwent chemotherapy for systemic cancer with single BM were enrolled. We compared the clinical factors of patients and BM between patients with and without BTRE. We determined the number of patients with BTRE attacks, and seizure-free survival according to the following comparative groups: presence vs. absence of a history of BTRE; high-risk vs. low-risk groups; and presence vs. absence of disease-progression of BM.
RESULTS
Ninety-three of 103 patients (90.3%) remained seizure-free during chemotherapy. The seizure-free rates were 88.9% and 91.0% among patients with or without a history of BTRE, respectively (p=0.694), 87.8% and 92.6% among high- and low-risk patients (p=0.427), respectively, and 62.5% and 98.7% among patients with or without disease-progression of BM (p=0.001), retrospectively. Based on multivariate analysis, the significance of abnormal findings on electroencephalogram (EEG) (p=0.017), and the absence of disease-progression of BM (p=0.001) had an association with seizure-free survival.
CONCLUSION
The significance of abnormal findings on EEG, and disease-progression of BM play important roles in the development of BTRE during chemotherapy for systemic cancer with BM.

Keyword

Brain neoplasms; Metastasis; Epilepsy; Chemotherapy; Pharmacology

MeSH Terms

Brain
Brain Neoplasms
Electroencephalography
Epilepsy
Humans
Incidence
Multivariate Analysis
Neoplasm Metastasis
Prospective Studies
Retrospective Studies

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Seizure-free survival curve in patients with previous history of seizure and in those without previous history of seizure.

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  Fig. 2 Seizure-free survival curve in high risk group and low risk group.

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  Fig. 3 Seizure-free survival curve in patients according to the disease-progression of single brain metastasis (BM) during chemotherapy for systemic cancer.

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