Gamma Knife surgery for brain metastasis from renal cell carcinoma: relationship between radiological characteristics and initial tumor response

Abstract

Objective : The authors have speculated that metastatic brain lesions from renal cell carcinoma (RCC) show diverse radiological patterns and tumor responses after Gamma knife surgery (GKS), and have hypothesized that these can be predicted from tumor radiological characteristics. The goal of the current study was to identify the radiological characteristics of RCC brain metastases and the predictors of initial radiosurgical response after GKS.

Methods : A retrospective analysis was performed on 48 lesions in 18 patients with RCC brain metastasis treated by GKS. The radiological characteristics of these lesions in magnetic resonance images (MRI) were classified into 3 categories according to enhancement patterns in T1-weighted images and signal intensity characteristics in T2-weighted images. Responses to GKS were analyzed according to these categories, and in addition, other potential predictive factors were also evaluated.

Results : MRI findings in the three categories were diverse, though numbers of the lesion were comparable. At 2-month MRI follow-ups after GKS, response rate was 54% and the local tumor control rate 83%. T2 signal intensity was found to be the principal predictive factor of response to GKS, namely negative predictive factor. Other variables such as age, sex, tumor volume, dose, duration from initial diagnosis to GKS, and previous systemic therapies failed to show significant relationships with treatment response by multivariate analysis.

Conclusion : Careful evaluation of the radiological characteristics of brain metastases from RCC is important prior to GKS because MRI heterogeneity has predictive value in terms of determining initial tumor response.