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Review
. 2020 Feb 11;11(6):650-669.
doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.27453.

Risk factors for breast cancer brain metastases: a systematic review

Lola Koniali  1   2 , Andreas Hadjisavvas  1   3   2 , Anastasia Constantinidou  4 , Kyproula Christodoulou  3   5 , Yiolanda Christou  6 , Christiana Demetriou  7 , Andreas S Panayides  8 , Constantinos Pitris  9 , Constantinos S Pattichis  8 , Eleni Zamba-Papanicolaou  3   6 , Kyriacos Kyriacou  1   3
Affiliations
Review

Risk factors for breast cancer brain metastases: a systematic review

Lola Koniali et al. Oncotarget. .

Abstract

Background: Brain metastasis (BM) is an increasingly common and devastating complication of breast cancer (BC).

Methods: A systematic literature search of EMBASE and MEDLINE was conducted to elucidate the current state of knowledge on known and novel prognostic factors associated with 1) the risk for BCBM and 2) the time to brain metastases (TTBM).

Results: A total of 96 studies involving institutional records from 28 countries were identified. Of these, 69 studies reported risk factors of BCBM, 46 factors associated with the TTBM and twenty studies examined variables for both outcomes. Young age, estrogen receptor negativity (ER-), overexpression of human epidermal factor (HER2+), and higher presenting stage, histological grade, tumor size, Ki67 labeling index and nodal involvement were consistently found to be independent risk factors of BCBM. Of these, triple-negative BC (TNBC) subtype, ER-, higher presenting histological grade, tumor size, and nodal involvement were also reported to associate with shorter TTBM. In contrast, young age, hormone receptor negative (HR-) status, higher presenting stage, nodal involvement and development of liver metastasis were the most important risk factors for BM in HER2-positive patients.

Conclusions: The study provides a comprehensive and individual evaluation of the risk factors that could support the design of screening tools and interventional trials for early detection of BCBM.

Keywords: biomarkers; brain metastases; breast cancer; risk factors.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Flowchart of study selection.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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