History of brain and epidural metastases from breast cancer in relation with the disease evolution outside the central nervous system.
We reviewed 89 breast cancer patients with brain or epidural metastases in order to see whether a parallelism could be found between disease evolution inside and outside the central nervous system. One-fifth of the patients with brain metastases did not have any other site of relapse before neurological complication. Among the 38 patients who developed brain metastases and had a prior history of relapse outside the brain, 12 had control of constant extracranial sites while disease was progressing at these sites in 26 of them. In the epidural metastases group, all patients but 4 had progressive disease elsewhere when neurological complication appeared.
Dethy
S
S
Department of Neurology, Erasmus Hospital, Brussels, Belgium.
Piccart
M J
MJ
Paesmans
M
M
van Houtte
P
P
Klastersky
J
J
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary* / Q000628:therapy; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D015174:Epidural Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009460:Neurologic Examination; D012189:Retrospective Studies