Fig. 4

Kaplan–Meier estimate of overall survival according to initial treatment groups. a Patients treated with chemotherapy alone had a median overall survival 80.6 months (95 % CI 54.1 months to upper limit not available) compared with patients received HD-MTX + WBR 38.7 months (95 % CI 9.1–59.3 months) (Log rank p = 0.0037). b Of 26 patients treated with chemotherapy alone, ten patients underwent HDC-ASCT and 16 received HD-MTX consolidation. Patients treated with HDC-ASCT showed a survival curve that did not reach the median; patients treated with HD-MTX consolidation had a median overall survival 67.6 months (95 % CI 30.2 months to upper limit not available) (Log rank p = 0.2618). c Karnofsky Performance Score of the patients at the last follow-up. More than half of the patients treated with HDC-ASCT presented with 80–100 % KPS (red). d Distribution of KPS by age groups. Twenty-two patients were alive longer than 2 years, and 10 (45.5 %) of 22 patients had returned to their normal lives with a KPS of 80–100 %. WBR whole brain radiotherapy, OS overall survival, KPS Karnofsky performance status, HD-MTX high-dose methotrexate, HDC-ASCT high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem-cell transplant, MTX methotrexate