Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41503263›Full record

ArticleBrain & spine2026

The mFI-11 frailty index as a predictor of surgical outcomes in elderly patients with brain metastases.

Stefanie Quach, Roland Coras, Florian Weissinger, Matthias Simon, Tunc Faik Ersoy

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Article in Brain & spine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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2 · The registry

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Stefanie QuachDepartment of Neurosurgery, University Hospital OWL, Campus Bielefeld-Bethel, Bielefeld, Germany.
Roland CorasDepartment of Neuropathology, University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany.
Florian WeissingerDepartment of Hematology, Oncology and Palliative Care, University Hospital OWL, Campus Bielefeld-Bethel, Bielefeld, Germany.
Matthias SimonDepartment of Neurosurgery, University Hospital OWL, Campus Bielefeld-Bethel, Bielefeld, Germany.
Tunc Faik ErsoyDepartment of Neurosurgery, University Hospital OWL, Campus Bielefeld-Bethel, Bielefeld, Germany.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Introduction: The vulnerability towards disease but also treatment in elderly patients has been referred to as frailty and can be measured using frailty indices, which assess functional health and comorbidities. Frailty has been shown to correlate with survival and functional outcomes in brain tumor patients. Research question: Does frailty, assessed by the 11-item modified Frailty Index (mFI-11), provide useful prognostic information in elderly patients undergoing brain metastasis surgery? Material and methods: A retrospective analysis of 139 patients aged ≥60 years who underwent brain metastasis resection (2015-2019) was conducted. Frailty was assessed using the mFI-11. Results: Increasing frailty correlated with poorer median overall survival (mFI 0: 13.8 months [95 %-CI: 8.7-18.9] vs. mFI 1-2l: 8.7 [5.8-11.6] vs. mFI≥3: 2.8 [0.9-4.6], p = 0.001) and functional outcome (postoperative KPS 80-100 %, mFI 0: 27/36 [75.0 %] vs. mFI 1-2: 44/64 [68.8 %] vs. mFI≥3: 13/38 [34.2 %], p < 0.001). Age was less prognostic. In the multivariate analyses, mFI-11 and age were not independently predictive, while KPS was. Frailty was not associated with major complications. Discussion: While frailty correlates with outcome, functional health rather than comorbidities and age is prognostic. The mFI-11's predictive ability may be largely due to its inclusion of a functional health assessment. Conclusion: Functional health (KPS) is a much stronger predictor of survival and functional outcome in the elderly than the presence of comorbidities and age, i.e. age per se and comorbidities without impact on the patient's functional health status (i.e. well-treated) should not deter from surgery. Frailty is not a predictor of complications.

Indexed as

Brain metastasesComorbiditiesElderlyFrailtyFunctional outcomeSurvival

Identifiers

PMID41503263
PMCPMC12771347

What Socratic holds

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.