Clinical Biomarkers for Early Identification of Patients with Intracranial Metastatic Disease

Karolina Gaebe; Alyssa Y Li; Sunit Das

doi:10.3390/cancers13235973

Clinical Biomarkers for Early Identification of Patients with Intracranial Metastatic Disease

Cancers (Basel). 2021 Nov 27;13(23):5973. doi: 10.3390/cancers13235973.

Authors

Karolina Gaebe¹, Alyssa Y Li¹, Sunit Das^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Medical Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, 1 King's College Circle, Toronto, ON M5S 3K1, Canada.
² Division of Neurosurgery, St. Michael's Hospital, University of Toronto, 30 Bond Street, Toronto, ON M5B 1W8, Canada.

Abstract

Nearly 30% of patients with cancer will develop intracranial metastatic disease (IMD), and more than half of these patients will die within a few months following their diagnosis. In light of the profound effect of IMD on survival and quality of life, there is significant interest in identifying biomarkers that could facilitate the early detection of IMD or identify patients with cancer who are at high IMD risk. In this review, we will highlight early efforts to identify biomarkers of IMD and consider avenues for future investigation.

Keywords: biomarker; brain metastases; breast cancer; intracranial metastatic disease; melanoma; non-small cell lung cancer.

Publication types

Review