Abstract
Dear Editor,
We enthusiastically read the article by Wang et al, 1 where they retrospectively investigated the preservation of long-term neurocognitive function in 47 patients diagnosed with brain metastases of non-small cell lung cancer who underwent hippocampal avoidance whole-brain radiotherapy (HA-WBRT), suggesting how HA-WBRT might have a protective effect.
Reading this interesting paper, we identified an inconsistency: it is mentioned that the results of the study revealed how HA-WBRT might have a protective effect on the long-term neurocognitive function”, and in particular the values of the MMSE and the MoCa score are reiterated (Figures 3 and 4 and Tables 4 and 5). From how the data are reported in Tables 4 and 5 and Figure 4, it would seem that individuals who have conducted hippocampal sparing had lower MMSE and MoCA values than those who have not, in contradiction to the data also illustrated in Figure 3. We would like to ask if we had misread the data or if there was a graphic issue in the tables and figures provided.
In conclusion, this is an important study on the protective effect of HA-WBRT on neurocognitive function. Clarification and eventual correction of the aforementioned contradiction will aid in better understanding the findings of this study.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
