Small vessel ischemic disease of the brain and brain metastases in lung cancer patients

• Published in: PloS one 2009-09, Vol.4 (9), p.e7242-e7242
• Main Authors: Mazzone, Peter J, Marchi, Nicola, Fazio, Vince, Taylor, J Michael, Masaryk, Thomas, Bury, Luke, Mekhail, Tarek, Janigro, Damir
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Aged; Aging; Biology; Biopsy; Blood-brain barrier; Brain; Brain cancer; Brain Ischemia - complications; Brain Ischemia - pathology; Brain Neoplasms - secondary; Brain research; Cancer; Cancer patients; Care and treatment; Chemotherapy; Cohort Studies; Dementia; Demographics; Demography; Diabetes; Diabetes mellitus; Diagnostic imaging; Edema; Female; Humans; Hyperlipidemia; Hypertension; Ischemia; Lung cancer; Lung diseases; Lung Neoplasms - diagnosis; Lung Neoplasms - pathology; Magnetic resonance; Magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Medical diagnosis; Medical imaging; Metastases; Metastasis; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Metastasis; Neuroimaging; Neurological Disorders/Cerebrovascular Disease; Neuroscience/Neuronal and Glial Cell Biology; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Patients; Permeability; Quality; Radiology and Medical Imaging/Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Respiratory Medicine/Lung Cancer; Retrospective Studies; Risk Factors; Smoking; Tobacco; Toxicity; Treatment Outcome; Tumors
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0007242

Brain metastases occur commonly in patients with lung cancer. Small vessel ischemic disease is frequently found when imaging the brain to detect metastases. We aimed to determine if the presence of small vessel ischemic disease (SVID) of the brain is protective against the development of brain metastases in lung cancer patients. A retrospective cohort of 523 patients with biopsy confirmed lung cancer who had received magnetic resonance imaging of the brain as part of their standard initial staging evaluation was reviewed. Information collected included demographics, comorbidities, details of the lung cancer, and the presence of SVID of the brain. A portion of the cohort had the degree of SVID graded. The primary outcome measure was the portion of study subjects with and without SVID of the brain who had evidence of brain metastases at the time of initial staging of their lung cancer.109 patients (20.8%) had evidence of brain metastases at presentation and 345 (66.0%) had evidence of SVID. 13.9% of those with SVID and 34.3% of those without SVID presented with brain metastases (p