A study using different types of MRI scans to look for risk factors for small cell lung cancer spread (CLUB 01)

This study used different MRI scans to try and find factors that increase the risk of small cell lung cancer spreading to the brain.

Doctors often treat small cell lung cancer (SCLC) with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. You may also have radiotherapy to the brain. This is done to help prevent the cancer spreading to the brain and is called prophylactic cranial irradiation, or PCI.

But it’s difficult to tell who will be most at risk of cancer spreading to the brain. So some people may have radiotherapy they don’t really need. Researchers hoped that using different scans would tell them who would benefit most from radiotherapy to the brain, so they can decide who needs treatment.

The researchers in this study used 3 types of MRI scan which looked for changes in blood vessels, chemicals and water movement in brain cells. The scans were called magnetisation transfer imaging (MTR), magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and diffusion weighted imaging (DWI).

The aim of this study was to find out whether these MRI scans can help doctors decide who has small cell lung cancer that is more likely to spread to the brain.