Brain metastasis prediction

Abstract

Brain metastases are common and highly deadly occurrences that derive from primary cancer, especially in patients with lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). However, it is challenging to predict if and when these metastases will appear. To better understand this issue, Zuccato et al. studied 402 LUAD tumor and plasma samples from patients with or without brain metastases. Specifically, they analyzed DNA methylation signatures and other clinical variables to derive a model that predicts the development of brain metastases. They found that promoters for some immune- and cell interaction-related genes were differentially methylated in brain metastases. Additionally, the abundance of certain immune cells was different in brain metastases versus LUAD. Importantly, they successfully leveraged the identification of liquid biomarkers — based on an analysis of methylated cell-free DNA obtained from plasma samples — to create and validate classifiers for early detection of brain metastases. The notion that LUAD methylomes can be used to predict the development of brain metastases in a noninvasive manner is a potentially exciting step toward personalized medicine. It will be interesting to investigate whether similar approaches can be used to predict the formation of brain metastases originating from other cancer types, and more broadly to predict different kinds of metastases in other organs.

Original reference: Nat. Med. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-024-03286-y (2024)