Understanding the factors that drive recurrence and radiosensitivity in brain metastases would improve prediction of outcomes, treatment planning and development of therapeutics. We investigated the expression of known metastasis-inducing proteins in human brain metastases.

Immunohistochemistry on metastases removed at neurosurgery from 138 patients to determine the degree and pattern of expression of the proteins S100A4, S100P, AGR2, osteopontin (OPN) and the DNA repair marker FANCD2. Validation of significant findings in a separate prospective series with the investigation of intra-tumoral heterogeneity using image-guided sampling. Assessment of S100A4 expression in brain metastatic and non-metastatic primary breast carcinomas.

There was widespread staining for OPN, S100A4, S100P and AGR2 in human brain metastases. Positive staining for S100A4 was independently associated with a shorter time to intracranial progression after resection in multivariate analysis (hazard ratio for negative over positive staining=0.17, 95% CI: 0.04-0.74, P=0.018). S100A4 was expressed at the leading edge of brain metastases in image guided sampling and overexpressed in brain metastatic vs non-brain metastatic primary breast carcinomas. Staining for OPN was associated with a significant increase in survival time after post-operative whole-brain radiotherapy in retrospective (OPN negative 3.43 months, 95% CI: 1.36-5.51 vs OPN positive, 11.20 months 95% CI: 7.68-14.72, Log rank test, P<0.001) and validation populations.

Proteins known to be involved in cellular adhesion and migration in vitro, and metastasis in vivo are significantly expressed in human brain metastases and may be useful biomarkers of intracranial progression and radiosensitivity.British Journal of Cancer advance online publication 21 April 2016; doi:10.1038/bjc.2016.103 www.bjcancer.com.