This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Jean Yves Delattre, MD; George Krol, MD; Howard T. Thaler, MD; Jerome B. Posner, MD

Arch Neurol. 1988;45(7):741-744.

Abstract
• The number and site of brain metastases were identified on the computed tomographic scans of 288 patients. There was one brain metastasis in 49%, two in 21%, three in 13%, four in 6%, and five or more in 11% of scans. In patients with one metastasis, the posterior fossa was involved in 50% of patients when the primary tumor was pelvic (prostate or uterus) or gastrointestinal, but it was involved in only 10% of patients with other primary tumors. Hemispheral metastases preferred the anatomic "watershed areas" (29% of the brain surface contained 37% of the metastases), indicating that tumoral microemboli tend to lodge in the capillaries of the distal parts of the superficial arteries. The charts of 134 patients with brain metastases from a primary tumor originating outside the lung revealed that the incidence of lung and spine metastases was the same, whether the primary tumor was pelvic or gastrointestinal or from another site. These data suggest that the high incidence of subtentorial lesions in patients with pelvic and gastrointestinal primary tumors cannot be explained by arterial embolization alone, and that this peculiar distribution is probably not explained by seeding of the brain through Batson's plexus.

Author Affiliations
From the Departments of Neurology (Drs Delattre and Posner), Radiology (Dr Krol), and Biostatistics (Dr Thaler), Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Cornell University Medical College, New York.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication Feb 29, 1988.

Reprint requests to Department of Neurology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Ave, New York, NY 10021 (Dr Posner).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

CNS metastasis from malignant uveal melanoma: a clinical and histopathological characterisation
Holfort et al.
Br J Ophthalmol 2009;93:641-644.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Central Nervous System Metastases in HER-2-Overexpressing Metastatic Breast Cancer: A Treatment Challenge
Stemmler and Heinemann
The Oncologist 2008;13:739-750.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Multidisciplinary Management of Brain Metastases
Eichler and Loeffler
The Oncologist 2007;12:884-898.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Increased Permeability of the Blood-Brain Barrier to Chemotherapy in Metastatic Brain Tumors: Establishing a Treatment Paradigm
Gerstner and Fine
JCO 2007;25:2306-2312.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Targeted Therapy for Brain Metastases: Improving the Therapeutic Ratio
Patel and Mehta
Clin. Cancer Res. 2007;13:1675-1683.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Resectable Brain Metastases
Vogelbaum and Suh
JCO 2006;24:1289-1294.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Whole-Brain Radiotherapy in the Management of Brain Metastasis
Khuntia et al.
JCO 2006;24:1295-1304.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Stereotactic radiosurgery for brain oligometastases: good for some, better for all?
Gupta
Ann Oncol 2005;16:1749-1754.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Therapy of Hematogenous Melanoma Brain Metastases with Endostatin
Kirsch et al.
Clin. Cancer Res. 2005;11:1259-1267.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Incidence Proportions of Brain Metastases in Patients Diagnosed (1973 to 2001) in the Metropolitan Detroit Cancer Surveillance System
Barnholtz-Sloan et al.
JCO 2004;22:2865-2872.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Primary and Secondary Brain Tumors at MR Imaging: Bicentric Intraindividual Crossover Comparison of Gadobenate Dimeglumine and Gadopentetate Dimeglumine
Knopp et al.
Radiology 2004;230:55-64.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Assessment of Brain Metastases with Dynamic Susceptibility-weighted Contrast-enhanced MR Imaging: Initial Results
Essig et al.
Radiology 2003;228:193-199.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Case 24-1999- Neurologic Disorder in a 65-Year-Old Man after Treatment of Colon Cancer
Recht and Primavera
NEJM 1999;341:512-519.
FULL TEXT  

Postoperative Radiotherapy in the Treatment of Single Metastases to the Brain: A Randomized Trial
Patchell et al.
JAMA 1998;280:1485-1489.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Treatment of a Single Brain Metastasis: The Role of Radiation Following Surgical Resection
Mintz and Cairncross
JAMA 1998;280:1527-1529.
FULL TEXT  

Three Cases of Enduring Memory Impairment after Bilateral Damage Limited to the Hippocampal Formation
Rempel-Clower et al.
J. Neurosci. 1996;16:5233-5255.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Successful Treatment of Solitary Extracranial Metastases From Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Luketich et al.
Ann. Thorac. Surg. 1995;60:1609-1611.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Case 43-1993 -- A 71-Year-Old Woman with Confusion, Hemianopia, and an Occipital Mass
Henson and Ferraro
NEJM 1993;329:1335-1341.
FULL TEXT  

Brain Metastases From Undiagnosed Systemic Neoplasms
Merchut
Arch Intern Med 1989;149:1076-1080.
ABSTRACT