Palliative radiation therapy for brain metastases from endometrial carcinoma: report of two cases.
Although endometrial carcinoma is a common invasive neoplasm of the female genital tract, brain metastases are extremely rare and few reports exist of their treatment with radiation therapy. We report two patients with manifest clinical signs of brain metastases from endometrial carcinoma on computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). These two patients had multiple brain metastases, with widespread dissemination late in the course of the disease and received palliative whole-brain radiation therapy to a total dose of 50 Gy in 25 fractions (case 1) and 30 Gy in 10 fractions (case 2). After radiation therapy, improvement of neurological function (NF) was observed in both patients. The duration of improvement of NF was 9 weeks in case 1 and 12 weeks in case 2. The patients died 5 months and 3 months after the diagnosis of brain metastases, respectively. In these two cases, palliative radiation therapy was effective in improving the quality of the remaining lifetime and appears to be the best treatment for brain metastases from endometrial carcinoma as well as those frequently seen from other primaries.
Ogawa
K
K
Department of Radiology, University of the Ryukyus School of Medicine, Okinawa, Japan. kogawa@med.u-ryukyu.ac.jp
Toita
T
T
Kakinohana
Y
Y
Kamata
M
M
Moromizato
H
H
Nagai
Y
Y
Higashi
M
M
Kanazawa
K
K
Yoshii
Y
Y
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000556:secondary*; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000556:secondary*; D019583:Dose Fractionation, Radiation; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008875:Middle Aged; D010166:Palliative Care; D011788:Quality of Life; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed