Solid tumors’ metastasis mechanisms into the brain

Abstract

The engineering and introduction into clinical practice of innovative methods of therapy patients with malignant tumors over the past two decades has certainly led to a significant increase in survival, which does not imply a “cure”, but the fact that more and more patients will live to the stage of metastasis to the central nervous system. The data obtained during diagnostic magnetic resonance imaging in recent years indicates a tendency to increase the number of cases of secondary brain damage in patients with various oncopathologies. Metastasis in the central nervous system is an actual problem due to the fact that the annual survival rate remains very low even with specific antitumor therapy (20 %). The study of the mechanisms of metastasis in the central nervous system is a key factor in the development of new effective approaches to the treatment of patients with this pathology, and, as a result, will lead to an improvement in the prognosis in this group of patients. Due to the analysis of the scientific literature on this issue, we have formulated and presented a modern understanding of the processes occurring in secondary brain damage. Special attention is devoted to organotropism, the mechanism of escape of metastatic cells from the immune system of the central nervous system and interaction with nerve cells, as well as the features of the extracellular matrix of the metastasis. Promising treatment methods being developed are presented.