[Metastatic brain tumors from gastrointestinal cancer: an analysis of patient background and treatment results].

Metastatic brain tumors have become a critical issue in clinical management for patients with cancer. We retrospectively analysed features of 105 patients with metastatic brain tumors from gastrointestinal cancer, who underwent treatment in our institute between September, 2002 and December, 2010. Treatment strategy was individualized according to the patient's systemic and neurologic conditions, size and location of the brain metastases, and expectant systemic treatment through our cancer board. Treatment outcome was significantly better in patients with RTOG RPA class 2 than in those with class 3(8.6 months vs 3.5 months: p<0.05). Metastatic brain tumors were diagnosed at 6.3/13.1/15.7 months after diagnosis of metastatic lung tumors from esophagus/stomach/colon cancers respectively. A third of the patients with metastatic brain tumor from rectal cancer presented without evident lung metastasis. In conclusion, patients with brain metastasis from gastrointestinal cancers can achieve improvement in survival with early diagnosis and multidisciplinary individualized treatments.