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Brain metastases from colon cancer

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Abstract

Between 1977 and 1980 we evaluated 40 patients who developed brain metastases from colon cancer (4% of total patients with colon cancer). The brain metastasis was discovered in only one patient prior to cancer diagnosis; all others had known colon cancer for 2 to 48 months (median 24.5 months) prior to neurologic presentation. The colon tumor was left-sided in 32; 32 had regional lymph node metastases at neurological presentation; 37 patients had extensive systemic metastasis as well as the brain lesion. Median survival from onset of therapy for brain metastasis was 9 weeks in 32 radiation therapy (RT) treated patients (range, 2–57 weeks), 37 weeks in 7 surgically resected patients (2–84 weeks), and 4 weeks (3.5 weeks) in 2 chemotherapy patients. Follow-up CT scans were improved in 2 of 11 radiated patients. Five of 6 surgically treated patients with CT follow-up demonstrated recurrent tumor (median 4 months). The prognosis for patients with brain metastasis in colon cancer is poor, regardless of therapy.

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Author notes

  1. T. L. Cascino

    Present address: Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Neurology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Cornell University Medical College, New York, New York, USA

    T. L. Cascino, J. M. Leavengood & J. B. Posner

  2. Departments of Medicine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Cornell University Medical College, New York, New York, USA

    N. Kemeny

Authors
  1. T. L. Cascino
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  2. J. M. Leavengood
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  3. N. Kemeny
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  4. J. B. Posner
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Additional information

Poster presentation, American Academy of Neurology, April 1982.

Address for reprints: Dr. Jerome B. Posner, 1275 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021, USA

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Cascino, T.L., Leavengood, J.M., Kemeny, N. et al. Brain metastases from colon cancer. J Neuro-Oncol 1, 203–209 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00165604

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00165604

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