title: Assessment of intracranial metastases from neuroendocrine tumors/carcinoma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The most common sites of origin for neuroendocrine carcinoma are gastrointestinal tract and its accessory glands, and lungs.
  
  
  METHODS
  One-hundred fifty cases diagnosed with metastatic brain lesions were retrieved from hospital records within 5 years. For these cases, the primary neoplasm, histopathological classification, metastasis, treatment, and fate all were studied.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Intracranial deposits were detected in 10%. The primary lesion was in the lungs in 87% of patients, and 1 patient in the breast and 1 in esophagus. Pathological classification of the primary lesion was Grade 2 (MIB-1: 3-20%) in 1 patient and neuroendocrine carcinoma (MIB-1: ≥21%) in 14 patients. The median period from onset of the primary lesion up to diagnosis of brain metastasis was 12.8 months. About 33% of patients had a single metastasis whereas 67% patients had multiple metastases. Brain metastasis was extirpated in 33% of patients. Stereotactic radiotherapy alone was administered in 20% of patients, and brain metastasis was favorably controlled in most of the patients with coadministration of cranial irradiation as appropriate. The median survival period from diagnosis of brain metastasis was 8.1 months.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Most of patients with brain metastasis from neuroendocrine carcinoma showed the primary lesion in the lungs, and they had multiple metastases to the liver, lymph nodes, bones, and so forth at the time of diagnosis of brain metastasis. The guidelines for accurate diagnosis and treatment of neuroendocrine carcinoma should be immediately established based on further analyses of those patients with brain metastasis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncologic Pathology, Kameda Hospital and Oncology Center, Kamogawa Chiba, Japan.
authors.forename: Ahmed M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Ragab Shalaby
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncologic Pathology, Kameda Hospital and Oncology Center, Kamogawa Chiba, Japan.
authors.forename: Hoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kazuei
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncologic Pathology, Kameda Hospital and Oncology Center, Kamogawa Chiba, Japan.
authors.forename: Honma
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Koichi
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Damanhour National Medical Institute, Damanhour, Egypt.
authors.forename: Saeed
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Naguib
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, KAAZ Hospital and Oncology Center, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Lubna A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Al-Menawei
keywords: Intracranial metastases; neuroendocrine carcinoma; radiotherapy