Brain metastases with an unknown primary: a clinical perspective.
A review of 43 patients with cerebral metastases, an unknown primary, and no other sites of metastases is presented. 27/43 (62.7%) had solitary metastases and 37.2% (16/43) had multiple metastases. Surgical treatment involved complete resection in 30.2%, subtotal resection in 37.2% and biopsy alone or no surgical procedure in the remainder. 39/43 patients underwent whole brain irradiation with the majority receiving 3,000-4,000 rads/10-20 fractions. Overall survival was 52% at six months and 20% at one year, and was significantly better in patients with solitary as opposed to multiple metastases (p less than 0.03). A failure analysis including autopsy data demonstrates that (28/41) 68.3% of patients died of progressive intracranial disease without extracerebral metastases. Implications for treatment strategies are discussed.
Eapen
L
L
Ottawa Regional Cancer Centre.
Vachet
M
M
Catton
G
G
Danjoux
C
C
McDermot
R
R
Nair
B
B
Girard
A
A
Genest
P
P
Stewart
D
D
Gerig
L
L
D000206:Actuarial Analysis; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000556:secondary* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009382:Neoplasms, Unknown Primary