"Brain metastases" refers to cancer cells that have spread from another part of the body to the brain. It means that the cancer has spread into the brain and formed new tumors there.
Full definition
[32] In patients with
brain metastases in the AZD3759 phase I clinical trial, 63 % (12 of 19 patients) achieved an intracranial response and 50 % (10 of 20 patients) had an extracranial response.
Many lung cancer trials have traditionally excluded patients
with brain metastases at baseline, expecting that the presence of metastases would create negative results that could in turn create the appearance of drug failure.
Stereotactic radiosurgery is an effective and commonly used treatment
for brain metastases, but intracranial tumor progression is frequent after SRS alone, primarily because of the development of new metastatic lesions.
Approximately 30 percent of patients with cancer
develop brain metastases, and the incidence of these lesions is rising.
Subgroup analyses showed benefit with the combination in all groups, with the exception of those with
brain metastases at baseline, though this included a total of only 12 patients.
They and additional co-authors at the MGH Cancer Center, the University of North Carolina, Vanderbilt University and Novartis, identified HER3 — part of the same signaling pathway that includes HER2 — as a possible contributor to anti-HER2 / PI3K resistance in breast
cancer brain metastases.
The Value of Diffusion Tensor Imaging in Differentiating High - Grade Gliomas
from Brain Metastases: A Systematic Review and Meta - Analysis
In their search for novel, tumor - specific therapies that could target
multiple brain metastases without damaging adjacent tissues, the research team first developed a mouse model that more closely mimics what is seen in patients.
Whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) significantly improves tumor control in the brain after SRS, yet because of its association with cognitive decline, its role in the treatment of patients with
brain metastases remains controversial.
Researchers also examined the rates of overall survival (OS), development of
distant brain metastases (DBM), time to WBRT, and complications following SRS.
«Our results are the first to provide insight into ways of
targeting brain metastases with stem - cell - directed molecules that specifically induce the death of tumor cells and then eliminating the therapeutic stem cells.»
In their search for novel, tumor - specific therapies that could target multiple
brain metastases without damaging adjacent tissues, the research team first developed different BRAF wild type and mutant mouse models that more closely mimic what is seen in patients.
In this video we discuss the use of concurrent immunotherapy and stereotactic radiosurgery for treatment of
melanoma brain metastases.
While target therapies directed toward genetic mutations that drive a tumor's growth have significantly improved the outlook for many patients, they have not been as successful in
controlling brain metastases in several types of cancer.
Before this study was carried out, the extent to which the genetic profiles of
brain metastases differ from that of the primary was unknown.
It is not enough to rely on the characteristics of the primary tumour
because brain metastases have other specific gene alterations and in many patients this gives us better treatment alternatives.»
«We set out to find which genes can regulate the cells that
initiate brain metastases, which we've termed brain metastasis initiating cells or BMICs.
«In the absence of a difference in overall survival, these findings suggest that for patients with 1 to 3
brain metastases amenable to radiosurgery, SRS alone may be a preferred strategy,» the authors write.
The Nakano lab is also working
on brain metastases, tumors that spread into the brain from other parts of the body.
Brain metastases occur in a large number of patients with common cancers and are more prevalent than many primary tumors, including primary brain tumors, lymphoma and colon cancer.
The TGen team performed deep genomic profiling, integrating gene copy number, gene expression and DNA methylation datasets on a collection of 35 breast -
brain metastases samples.
«HER3 has been associated with treatment resistance in several types of cancer, and our findings indicate that the overexpression of HER3 within the microenvironment of
brain metastases reprograms the signaling pathways shut down by HER2 suppression,» says co-first author Ferraro.
Several tests in cultured cells indicated that ganciclovir would cause the death of HSV - TK - expressing stem cells, and testing in the mouse model confirmed that administration of the drug after successful treatment of
brain metastases successfully eliminated therapeutic stem cells that also expressed HSV - TK.
In this case report from CNS Oncology the authors present a rare case of a patient with multiple
recurrent brain metastases of pancreatic origin.
** The team used data from eTumour, a previous European research programme, on the chemical contents of 378 patient samples from five different types of brain tumours: glioblastomas, astrocytomas, meningiomas, oligodendrogliomas, and tumours that had spread to the brain,
called brain metastases.
Cumulative Intracranial Tumor Volume and Number of
Brain Metastases as Predictors of Developing New Lesions After Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Brain Metastasis.
We aim to understand
how brain metastases adapt to their environment and how we can target them better.
Randomized Phase II Study: Corticosteroids + Bevacizumab vs. Corticosteroids + Placebo (BEST) for Radionecrosis after Radiosurgery for Brain Metastases
«If you look at a set of lung cancer patients, like we did in the paper, who
develop brain metastases, they all have those two genes in their primary lung cancer,» said Sheila Singh, the study's supervisor, associate professor at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, scientist with the Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute at McMaster University and neurosurgeon at McMaster Children's Hospital.
Even where treatment is successfully controlling cancer elsewhere in the body,
brain metastases often grow rapidly.»
Undergoing immunotherapy within a month of stereotactic radiosurgery resulted in an improved response to treatment for patients with
melanoma brain metastases.
Dr. Anders, a native of Burlington, N.C., an assistant professor in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, was chosen for her work on the identification of the prognosis and treatment of breast
cancer brain metastases.
Research from McMaster University has identified new regulators of
brain metastases in patients with lung cancer.
For patients with non-small cell lung cancer
with brain metastases, treatment with whole brain radiotherapy may not offer much benefit.
«Viable treatment options for
brain metastases are still an unmet need,» said Hong Zhao, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of systems medicine and bioengineering at Houston Methodist Research Institute and co-corresponding author.
Only a minority of fibrolamellar patients will develop
brain metastases, Simon expects.