Intramedullary spinal cord metastases in breast cancer: report of four cases and review of the literature

Abstract

Intramedullary spinal cord metastases (ISCM) are usually the result of rapidly progressing systemic cancer. Breast cancer represents one of the most common solid tumors associated with the development of ISCM at rather advanced stages of disease. In the present report we describe four new cases with advanced breast cancer developing ISCM. All cases presented herein indicated that ISCM is a late manifestation of disseminated breast cancer. Three of these patients had been treated for approximately 1–3 years for metastatic disease. Once ISCM developed, concurrent asymptomatic brain metastases were detected in one case, concurrent symptomatic brain disease (cerebellar) was present at the time of cervical ISCM diagnosis in another patient, and in another case, ISCM developed metachronously at 18 months after the diagnosis of symptomatic brain metastases treated by whole brain radiotherapy. One of these cases had brain metastases at presentation, while at relapse developed leptomeningeal carcinomatosis treated successfully, but followed shortly, as a terminal event, by ISCM and parenchymal brain recurrence.

All but one patient experienced a rather rapidly evolving disease course leading to death after 2–5 months from widespread neuraxis dissemination of their cancer, while one patient is still alive 6 months after the diagnosis of ISCM. All four cases, added to the list of the anecdotally reported cases of ISCM after breast cancer, undermine the ominous prognosis and limited treatment options available for this disease manifestation, and an extensive literature review and discussion of similar cases is provided.