Brain metastases are one of the most malignant complications of lung cancer and constitute a significant cause of cancer related morbidity and mortality worldwide. Recent years of investigation suggested a role of LKB1 in NSCLC development and progression, in synergy with KRAS alteration. In this study, we systematically analyzed how LKB1 and KRAS alteration, measured by mutation, gene expression (GE) and copy number (CN), are associated with brain metastasis in NSCLC.

Patients treated at University of North Carolina Hospital from 1990 to 2009 with NSCLC provided frozen, surgically extracted tumors for analysis. GE was measured using Agilent 44,000 custom-designed arrays, CN was assessed by Affymetrix GeneChip Human Mapping 250K Sty Array or the Genome-Wide Human SNP Array 6.0 and gene mutation was detected using ABI sequencing. Integrated analysis was conducted to assess the relationship between these genetic markers and brain metastasis. A model was proposed for brain metastasis prediction using these genetic measurements.

17 of the 174 patients developed brain metastasis. LKB1 wild type tumors had significantly higher LKB1 CN (p < 0.001) and GE (p = 0.002) than the LKB1 mutant group. KRAS wild type tumors had significantly lower KRAS GE (p < 0.001) and lower CN, although the latter failed to be significant (p = 0.295). Lower LKB1 CN (p = 0.039) and KRAS mutation (p = 0.007) were significantly associated with more brain metastasis. The predictive model based on nodal (N) stage, patient age, LKB1 CN and KRAS mutation had a good prediction accuracy, with area under the ROC curve of 0.832 (p < 0.001).

LKB1 CN in combination with KRAS mutation predicted brain metastasis in NSCLC.