Crane G, Smoljanovic V, Khan N, et al. - In patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), researchers determined the burden of central nervous system (CNS) metastases on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and healthcare resource use (HRU). By baseline CNS metastases status, they enrolled 162 patients from a prospective European study ≥ 18 years, with metastatic NSCLC, Eastern Oncology C0operative Group (ECOG) performance status 0–2 and life expectancy ≥ 12 weeks in two cohorts (n = 80 CNS cohort, n = 82 non-CNS cohort). When selected clinical trial criteria were applied, there were minor differences in HRQoL/HRU between patients with advanced NSCLC with/without CNS metastases. More CNS patients were hospitalised at baseline for longer, but more CNS patients were hospitalised with emergency room visits by Visit 2. At baseline, more CNS vs non-CNS patients had MRI scans, but fewer had fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET)-computed tomography (CT) scans. Patients with/without CNS metastases had no decline in quality of life over 3 months. Differences were evident concerning comorbidities, diagnostic tests and length of hospital stay. Although follow-up was short, cohorts had similar HRQoL scores at all visits, supporting the wider inclusion of selected patients with CNS disease into clinical trials.