Impact of resection and systemic therapy on the survival of patients with brain metastasis of metastatic renal cell carcinoma

Patients with brain metastasis (BM) from renal cell carcinoma (RCC) are associated with poor prognosis. Between 1990 and 2015, data of consecutive RCC patients with BM were retrospectively analyzed from a urologic oncologic database. The treatment outcome was evaluated by overall survival (OS), which was defined as interval from initial diagnosis of BM to death or last follow-up. Statistical analyses of clinical and pathological variables were performed using Cox regression and the Kaplan–Meier method. A total of 116 RCC patients with BM were included. Median time from initial diagnosis of RCC to BM was 15.8 months (95 % CI 11.6–20.0). Median OS after diagnosis of brain metastases of the whole cohort was 5.8 months (95 % CI 4.3–7.2). On multivariate Cox regression analysis, age and histology of non-clear cell RCC were associated with poorer outcome, while targeted therapy (n = 26) (OS 9.9 months, 95 % CI 3.3–16.5) and BM resection (n = 33) (OS 24.7 months, 95 % CI 4–40) were associated with better survival. Furthermore, patients who underwent both targeted therapy and BM resection (n = 5) had the best outcome with median OS of 52.4 months. In conclusion, BM from RCC is associated with a poor oncological outcome. Furthermore, age and histology of non-clear cell RCC are risk factors for poor prognosis. Patients with resectable BM may comprise a better prognostic group. Here, a better OS for resected than unresected patients was observed, which warrants BM resection. A combined modality approach of resection and targeted therapy appears to further improve the outcome of these patients while additional radiation seems to add no benefit.