Clinical outcomes in intracranial and extracranial lesions with fist-line systemic therapies in patients with brain metastases from lung cancer

Background: Lung cancer is the most common type of cancer to develop the Brain Metastases (BM), along with poor prognosis. This study evaluated the responses of different courses of fist-line systemic therapies including single chemotherapy and targeted agents or their combination for intracranial and extracranial lesions in patients with BM from lung cancer. Patients and Methods: Twenty patients, diagnosed with lung cancer with BM and received fist-line chemotherapies, targeted agents or their combination, were retrospectively analyzed between 2010 and 2016. Treatment responses of intracranial and extracranial lesions after 2, 4 cycles of systemic therapies were assessed respectively. Results: Twenty patients were evaluated for treatment responses. After 2 cycles of therapies, fourteen patients had simultaneously assessable intracranial and extracranial lesions. No significant difference was observed between intracranial and extracranial lesions (Z=1.000, P=0.317). The results revealed similar efficacy (Z=0.000, P=1.000) of intracranial and extracranial lesions after 4 cycles of therapy, but there were only nine patients remaining evaluated. Besides, there were consistency efficacy (Z=0.905, P=0.366) of intracranial and extracranial lesions after 2-4 cycles of therapy. Conclusion: Fist-line systemic therapies seem to achieve similar efficacy and responses between intracranial and extracranial lesions in lung cancer patients with BM. Further studies will be needed to confirm the treatment responses between intracranial and extracranial lesions and their underlying mechanisms