TURKISH JOURNAL OF ONCOLOGY 2007 , Vol 22 , Num 2
Primary unknown solitary brain metastasis: brain recurrence alone
Gülden BAYIR ANGIN, Mert SAYNAK, Zafer KOÇAK, Alaattin ÖZEN, Ruşen COŞAR ALAS, Vuslat YÜRÜT ÇALOĞLU, Murat ÇALOĞLU, Füsun TOKATLI, Cem UZAL
Trakya Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Radyasyon Onkolojisi Anabilim Dalı, Edirne A 53-year-old male patient presented with complaints of headache and paresis in left arm. Cranial computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated a mass in the right parietal region. The solitary tumor was removed by craniotomy. Histological examination showed that it was a squamous cell carcinoma metastasis. The patient subsequently underwent whole brain radiotherapy for a total dose of 30 Gy in 10 fractions and conventional external-beam boost irradiation of 10 Gy in 5 fractions to the tumor margins. He remained disease free until 23 months later. He returned to our clinic with left arm paresis after 24 months. In the left parietal lobe a new lesion was determined on his MRI scan. Partial brain reirradiation at a dose of 25 Gy in 10 fractions was performed. There was a partial regression of symptoms after radiotherapy. In the light of this patient, we reviewed the literature and discussed the treatment strategies of patients with solitary brainmetastasis. Keywords : Solitary brain metastasis; surgery, radiosurgery; unknown primary tumour; whole brain radiotherapy