title: Cranial magnetic resonance imaging in the staging of HER2-positive Breast Cancer Patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of the current study was to evaluate whether early detection of brain metastases (BMs) could improve survival outcomes in human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  HER2-positive breast cancer patients without BMs who had no neurological symptoms within 12 months from diagnosis or relapse time of the disease were included in the study. The patients were distributed into 2 groups: Group 1 comprised patients without metastases; group 2 comprised patients with metastases. The symptomatic historic control group with BMs was defined retrospectively for survival comparisons.
  
  
  RESULTS
  55 (57.3%) and 41 (42.7%) patients were in groups 1 and 2, respectively. 11 of the 96 patients (11.5%) had occult BMs, and 9 of them were in group 2 whereas only 2 patients were in group 1 (22% vs. 3.6%, respectively; p = 0.008). While the median survival times from the first metastasis (28.7 vs. 22.5 months, respectively; p = 0.561) and BM (6.8 vs. 6.1 months, respectively; p = 0.511) were similar, cerebral death was numerically different (16.7% vs. 46.3%; p = 0.221) between asymptomatic (n = 9) and symptomatic patients (n = 53).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  BMs were detected very rarely in asymptomatic, non-metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer patients compared with asymptomatic, metastatic patients. Furthermore, although early detection of BMs decreases the cerebral death rate, it does not prolong the survival rate in metastatic patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Dicle University, School of Medicine, Diyarbakir, Turkey. makaplan@dicle.edu.tr
authors.forename: Muhammet A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Kaplan
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Inal
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kucukoner
authors.forename: Zuhat
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Urakci
authors.forename: Faysal
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ekici
authors.forename: Ugur
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Firat
authors.forename: Seyit B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Zincircioglu
authors.forename: Abdurrahman
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Isikdogan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D015995:Prevalence; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D012307:Risk Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases