ELCC 2022 | Predicting the development of brain metastases in patients with radically treated stage III NSCLC

Lizza Hendriks, MD, PhD, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands, discusses the prediction of brain metastases in patients with radically treated stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Following chemoradiotherapy, accumulative incidence of brain metastasis can reach approximately 20-30% in this patient population. Clinical trials have shown prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) to reduce the incidence of brain metastasis. Dr Hendriks describes a study evaluating the data of two clinical trials, the Phase III NVALT11 (NCT012824370) trial evaluating PCI versus observation in stage III NSCLC, and a prospective trial investigating the use of MRI to detect brain metastasis, which were used to build three models for the prediction of brain metastasis in patients with NSLC. One was constructed based on clinical factors, which demonstrated younger age and adenocarcinoma histology as risk factors of brain metastasis, in accordance with previous findings. A radiomics model also predicted brain metastasis, although with moderate accuracy. The two models were combined, generating a third model, showing the radiomics model did not contribute to the predictive accuracy of the clinical model. This interview took place during the virtual European Lung Cancer Congress 2022.