Local metastatic expansion versus secondary intra-organ dissemination: two causes of neurological death explained by fundamentally different metastatic colonization patterns.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Neurological failure contributes to 15-50% of deaths in patients with brain metastases, yet the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Clinical causes range from local compression to meningeal metastasis. In this context, a link between infiltrative histopathological growth patterns (HGPs) and meningeal metastasis was recently described and prompted this reverse translation study.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective postmortem histological assessment and a prospective MRI-based proof-of-concept study to explore neurological decline mechanisms in two experimental brain metastasis models with different HGPs: (i) the non-infiltrative TUBO model, characterized by well-defined tumor borders and a multilayered astrocytic capsule; and (ii) the infiltrative E077

SUBMITTER: Komljenovic D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12849154 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature