Exploration of spatial distribution of brain metastasis from small cell lung cancer and identification of metastatic risk level of brain regions: a multicenter, retrospective study

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to explore the spatial distribution of brain metastases (BMs) from small cell lung cancer (SCLC) a homogenous sample, and to identify the metastatic risk levels in brain regions. METHODS: T1-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) from SCLC patients were retrospectively reviewed from three medical institutions in China. All images were registered to the standard brain template provided by the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) 152 database, followed by transformation of the location of all BMs to the space of standard brain. The MNI structural atlas and Anatomical Automatic Labeling (AAL) atlas were then used to identify the anatomical brain regions, and the observed and expected rates of BMs were compared using 2-tailed proportional hypothesis testing. The locations and sizes of brain lesions were analyzed after image standardization. RESULTS: A total of 215 eligible patients with 1033 lesions were screened by MRI, including 157 (73%) males and 58 (27%) females. The incidence of crucial structures were as follows: hippocampus 0.68%, parahippocampal 0.97%, brainstem 2.05%, cauate 0.68%, putamen 0.68%, pallidum 0.2%, thalamus 1.36%. No BMs were found in the amygdala, pituitary gland, or pineal gland. The cumulative frequency of the important structures was 6.62%. Based on the results of MNI structural atlas, the cerebellum, deep white matter and brainstem was identified as a higher risk region than expected for BMs (P = 9.80 ×10(−15), 9.04 ×10(−6)), whereas temporal lobe were low-risk regions (P = 1.65 ×10(−4)). More detailed AAL atlas revealed that the low-risk regions for BMs was inferior frontal gyrus (P = 6.971 ×10(−4)), while the high-risk regions for BMs was cerebellar hemispheres (P = 1.177 ×10(−9)). CONCLUSION: Many crucial structures including the hippocampus, parahippocampus, pituitary gland and thalamus etc. have low frequency of brain metastases in a population of SCLC patients. This study provides the help to investigate the clinical feasibility of HA-WBRT and non-uniform dose of PCI in a population of SCLC patients. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40644-021-00410-w.