Brain metastases in children

Abstract

We reviewed the records of 31 children under the age of 21 years with parenchymal brain metastases diagnosed by CT scan (13 patients) or necropsy (18). Brain metastases were found in 18 of 139 (13%) children with solid tumors in whom complete postmortem examinations were done. Osteogenic sarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma were the most frequent primary tumors causing brain metastases in patients younger than 15 years, and testicular germ cell tumor, from age 15 to 21 years. Evidence of intratumoral hemorrhage was found in 50% of autopsy cases. Pulmonary metastases were present in 28 of 31 (90%). The median interval from recognition of pulmonary metastases to the development of brain metastases was 10 months. No patient had evidence of brain metastases at diagnosis of the systemic cancer. In only one patient was the brain the only site of relapse. Following detection of brain metastases, the median survival was seven months in six patients who underwent surgery and whole-brain radiation therapy and four months in 15 given radiotherapy (3000 rads) alone. Patients with relatively radioresistant brain metastases may benefit from surgical excision or higher doses of radiation, or both.