Perineural spread of cutaneous malignancy to the brain: a review of the literature and five patients treated with stereotactic radiotherapy.

BACKGROUND

The retrospective analysis was performed to investigate the role of stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) techniques for patients with intracranial perineural spread (PNS) of a primary cutaneous malignancy.

METHODS

Five patients were identified who received SRT from 1993 to 2003 for cutaneous malignancies with intracranial PNS to the cavernous sinus (n = 3) or Meckel's cave (n = 2). Patients were treated with GammaKnife stereotactic radiosurgery (n = 2), linear accelerator (linac)-based fractionated SRT (n = 2), or linac-based stereotactic radiosurgery (n = 1).

RESULTS

The median overall survival (OS) periods from diagnoses of cutaneous malignancy and intracranial PNS were 63.0 months (range, 22.0-102.2 months) and 25.5 months (range, 22.0-55.2 months), respectively. The median OS from SRT was 24.2 months (range, 19.5-53.2 months). One patient was alive and without evidence of disease at 53 months of follow-up. The median durations of local and regional control from SRT were 19.5 months (range, 1.5-53.2 months) and 7.0 months (range, 1.5-53.2 months), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Previous reports generally have recommended that patients with intracranial PNS receive palliative external-beam radiotherapy. Results from the current study suggest that some of these patients may have prolonged survival, or even may be cured. Judicious use of SRT should be considered in their management.