RESEARCH Risk factors of brain metas g L

longer survival for patients with LA-NSCLC isyuan nan li 17#, Chao yang District, Beijing 10021, China Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleNon-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) comprises approxi-mately 85 % of lung cancer. Locally advanced (LA)-NSCLC comprises approximately 31–44 % of NSCLC. The risk of developing brain metastases (BM) in patients with early stage NSCLC is 10%.[1] However, the risk of BM after treatment for LA-NSCLC is much higher, ap-proximately 30–50%.[1-6] BM is a devastating issue with a striking impact on survival and quality of life. diminished locoregional relapse of LA-NSCLC. Systemic chemotherapy has reduced the risk of extracranial me-tastases. Combined-modality therapy significantly in-creases survival. Recent studies employing multimodality therapy have reported median survival ranging from 20 to 43 months and 3-year survival rates of 34–63 % for LA-NSCLC.[7-13] However, chemotherapy has limited impact on BM because drugs do not easily penetrate the blood–brain barrier (BBB), which leaves the brain rela-tively undertreated.[5,14,15] The risk of BM increases as survival improves. Several studies have demonstrate