Intracranial perineural metastasis of adenoid cystic carcinoma of head and neck

Abstract

Three cases of intracranial perineural metastasis from adenoid cystic carcinoma of the head and neck are presented. The metastases presented more than 1 year (14 months to 5.5 years) after the primary tumor had been successfully treated without any evidence of local recurrence. Computed tomography of the intracranial metastasis demonstrated well-demarcated, hyperdense, enhancing extraaxial masses indistinguishable from meningioma. An intracranial extraaxial mass lesion with the appearance of a meningioma in a patient with known adenoid cystic carcinoma of the head and neck, regardless of the presence or absence of local recurrence, should be considered as metastasis until proved otherwise.