Primary unknown solitary brain metastasis: brain recurrence alone

A 53-year-old male patient presented with complaints of headache and paresis in left arm. Cranial computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated a mass in the right parietal region. The solitary tumor was removed by craniotomy. Histological examination showed that it was a squamous cell carcinoma metastasis. The patient subsequently underwent whole brain radiotherapy for a total dose of 30 Gy in 10 fractions and conventional external-beam boost irradiation of 10 Gy in 5 fractions to the tumor margins. He remained disease free until 23 months later. He returned to our clinic with left arm paresis after 24 months. In the left parietal lobe a new lesion was determined on his MRI scan. Partial brain reirradiation at a dose of 25 Gy in 10 fractions was performed. There was a partial regression of symptoms after radiotherapy. In the light of this patient, we reviewed the literature and discussed the treatment strategies of patients with solitary brainmetastasis.

Keywords: Solitary brain metastasis; surgery, radiosurgery; unknown primary tumour; whole brain radiotherapy