Ruelle A, Zuccarello M, Andrioli G
Department of Neurosurgery, Galliera Hospital, Genova, Italy.
Neurosurg Rev. 1994;17(1):83-7. doi: 10.1007/BF00309993.
The authors report two cases of surgically treated brain metastases from endometrial cancer which are quite unusual occurrences. In one of them the brain lesion was the presenting symptom of malignancy while in the other the metastasis was discovered after the primary tumor had been treated. Both the brain lesions were scarcely differentiated adenocarcinomas which closely resembled the uterine primaries histologically. The authors review the four cases reported in the literature and discuss the clinical features and the treatment of this disease. The analysis of cases shows that the metastatic potential of endometrial cancer is extremely variable and unpredictable but less severe than that observed in ovarian or cervical tumors. The authors suggest that the erratic behaviour of endometrial cancer may justify an aggressive (though necessarily palliative) approach to brain metastases even in the presence of circumscribed metastatic involvement.