Table 5.
Impact of adjuvant whole-brain treatment (WBRT) on survival, local recurrence, and distant recurrence in patients with a lung cancer or melanoma primary
| Primary type | No. of patients |
Hazard ratioa | 95% Confidence interval | P value | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whole group | WBRT group | Observation group | ||||
| Deaths, total/n | ||||||
| Lung | 105/83 | 65/52 | 40/31 | 0.82 | 0.52–1.29 | 0.39 |
| Melanoma | 75/63 | 23/21 | 52/42 | 0.75 | 0.44–1.28 | 0.29 |
| Local recurrence, total/n | ||||||
| Lung | 105/23 | 65/13 | 40/10 | 0.63 | 0.27–1.43 | 0.27 |
| Melanoma | 74b/8 | 22/1 | 52/7 | 0.27 | 0.03–2.24 | 0.23 |
| Distant recurrence, total/n | ||||||
| Lung | 105/33 | 65/14 | 40/19 | 0.40 | 0.20–0.80 | 0.009 |
| Melanoma | 74b/47 | 22/11 | 52/36 | 0.42 | 0.21–0.83 | 0.01 |
aUnadjusted hazard ratio. The referent or comparison group in this analysis is the observation group (group not receiving adjuvant WBRT). A hazard ratio <1 indicates a protective effect of WBRT (significant or otherwise) against the outcome of interest (death and the local and distant recurrences).
bOne patient with melanoma had no clinical follow-up after receiving his adjuvant WBRT and was therefore dropped out of the recurrence analysis.