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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Neuro-Oncology and Neurosurgical Oncology
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1482705
This article is part of the Research Topic Imaging to Monitor Treatment in Brain Tumors View all articles
The velocity of temporalis muscle wasting in cerebral metastasis is prognostic for poor survival.
Provisionally accepted
Artem Rafaelian 1*
Sae-Yeon Won 1
Bedjan Behmanesh 1
Daniel Cantré 1
Joshua D. Bernstock 2
Thomas Freiman 1
Jakob Seidlitz 3 Peter Baumgarten 4
Nazife Dinc 5
Juergen Konczalla 6
Florian Andreas Gessler 1
Daniel Dubinski 1- 1 University Hospital Rostock, Rostock, Germany
- 2 Department of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- 3 Lifespan Brain Institute, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
- 4 Clinic for Neurosurgery, Augsburg University Hospital, Augsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
- 5 Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital Jena, Jena, Thuringia, Germany
- 6 Center for Neurology and Neurosurgery, University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany
Recently, the temporalis muscle thickness on cranial CT scan was proposed as a surrogate marker for patient's baseline frailty that correlates with outcome in primary and metastatic brain tumor patients. In this study, we investigated whether the velocity of temporalis muscle atrophy (TMA) effects the outcome of patients with cerebral metastases.We analysed radiological and clinical data sets of 96 patients who received craniotomy for cerebral metastasis resection in our institution. We then correlated the radiological data with clinical course and outcome after stratification for the velocity of temporalis muscle atrophy.The median velocity of TMA was 0.0016mm/day. In patients with slow TMA rate, the median overall survival was significantly longer than in patients with fast TMA rate (37.7 months versus 22.9, p = 0.0007). Furthermore, patients with slow TMA had longer progression-free survival post operatively (7.6 months versus 4.38 months, p <0.0001).The overall survival post operatively (OS-PO) was also significantly longer in patients with slow TMA (8.9 months versus 5.1, p=0002).Based on this study, the velocity of temporalis muscle atrophy may represent an objective and dynamic index with potential for survival prognostication for patients with cerebral metastases
Keywords: Sarcopenia, Cerebral metastases, survival analysis, Frailty, Temporal Muscle
Received: 18 Aug 2024; Accepted: 11 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Rafaelian, Won, Behmanesh, Cantré, Bernstock, Freiman, Seidlitz, Baumgarten, Dinc, Konczalla, Gessler and Dubinski. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Artem Rafaelian, University Hospital Rostock, Rostock, Germany
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