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Table 3 Associations between investigated factors and regain of ambulatory status after treatment

From: Identifying patients with malignant spinal cord compression (MSCC) near end of life who can benefit from palliative radiotherapy

Factor

Subgroup (n)

Regaining ambulatory status, n (%)

p value

Age

 ≤ 65 years (190)

11 (6)

0.62

 > 65 years (185)

13 (7)

Interval FD to MSCC

 ≤ 15 months (261)

15 (6)

0.43

 > 15 months (114)

9 (8)

Visceral metastases

No (90)

9 (10)

0.11

Yes (285)

15 (5)

Further bone metastases

No (78)

4 (5)

0.80

Yes (297)

20 (7)

Primary tumor type

Breast cancer (31)

1 (3)

< 0.001

Prostate cancer (61)

3 (5)

Myeloma/lymphoma (15)

5 (33)

Lung cancer (116)

8 (7)

Other malignancies (152)

7 (5)

Sex

Female (112)

9 (8)

0.40

Male (263)

15 (6)

Time developing motor deficits

0–7 days (251)

7 (3)

< 0.0001

8–14 days (71)

7 (10)

 > 14 days (53)

10 (19)

ECOG performance score

1–2 (4)

1 (25)

0.23

3–4 (371)

23 (6)

Number of affected vertebrae

1–2 (113)

12 (11)

0.028

 ≥ 3 (262)

12 (5)

Radiotherapy regimen

1 × 8 Gy/5 × 4 Gy (168)

8 (5)

0.24

5 × 5 Gy/longer-course RT (207)

16 (8)

Entire cohort

N = 375

24 (6)

 
  1. FD First diagnosis of malignancy, MSCC Metastatic spinal cord compression, ECOG Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, RT Radiotherapy
  2. p values were calculated with the Chi-square test or the Fisher’s exact test (for n < 5). When applying Bonferroni adjustment, p values of < 0.005 were considered significant and are given in bold