Person:

Pinkus, Jack

BACKGROUND There are no reliable markers able to identify patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) likely to metastasize to the brain. We investigated associations between immunohistochemical markers and development of brain metastases in patients with NSCLC.

METHODS We performed a hospital-based, case-control study of patients with newly diagnosed NSCLC between 1989 and 2003 that developed brain metastases who had available pathology material from both primary NSCLC and brain metastases. The control patients had NSCLC and no evidence of brain metastases. We examined NSCLC for expression of Ki-67, caspase-3, VEGF-A, VEGF-C, E-cadherin and EGFR in 54 surgical pathology specimens using immunohistochemistry and evaluated associations with development of brain metastases.

RESULTS Brain metastases developed after a median time of 12.5 months (range 1.7-89.4 months) from the diagnosis of NSCLC. A significantly increased risk of developing brain metastases was associated with patients who had high Ki-67 (adjusted odds ratio 12.2, 95% CI, 2.4 to 70.4, P<0.001), low caspase-3 (adjusted odds ratio 43.0, 95% CI, 5.3 to >100, P<0.001), high VEGF-C (adjusted odds ratio 14.6, 95% CI, 2.0 to >100, P<0.001), and low E-cadherin (adjusted odds ratio 3.6, 95% CI, 0.9 to 16.4, P=0.05), in the primary NSCLC. No significant risk was observed with VEGF-A and EGFR. A high Ki-67 was also associated with a shorter overall survival (P=0.04).

CONCLUSIONS Patients with NSCLC and high Ki-67, low caspase-3, high VEGF-C, and low E-cadherin in their tumors may benefit from close surveillance since they may have an increased risk of developing brain metastases.