Effect of osteoporotic conditions on the development of peritumoral brain edema after LINAC-based radiation treatment in patients with intracranial meningioma

PURPOSE: Disruption of the tumor-brain barrier in meningioma is a crucial factor in peritumoral brain edema (PTBE). We previously reported the possible effect of osteoporosis on the integrity of the arachnoid trabeculae because both the bone and the arachnoid trabeculae are composed of type 1 collagen. We hypothesized that osteoporotic conditions may be associated with PTBE occurrence after radiation treatment in patients with meningioma. METHODS: A receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to identify the optimal cut-off values of mean skull Hounsfield unit for predicting osteopenia and osteoporosis in patients from our registry. Multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to determine whether possible osteoporosis independently predicted PTBE development in patients with meningioma after radiation. RESULTS: A total of 106 intracranial meningiomas were included for the study. All patients received linear accelerator-based radiation therapy in our hospital over an approximate 6-year period. Multivariate Cox regression analysis identified that hypothetical osteoporosis was an independent predictive factor for the development of PTBE in patients with meningioma after linear accelerator-based radiation treatment (hazard ratio 5.20; 95% confidence interval 1.11–24.46; p = 0.037). CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that possible osteoporotic conditions may affect PTBE development after linear accelerator-based radiation treatment for intracranial meningioma. However, due to the study’s small number of patients, these findings need to be validated in future studies with larger cohorts, before firm recommendations can be made. GRAPHIC ABSTRACT: [Image: see text] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13014-021-01890-7.