In a cancer patient when there is metastasis to brain the prognosis becomes very poor. But only some patients get metastasis to brain. In this study, in patients with brain metastasis, the demographic profile, the site of primary tumour, stage at diagnosis, histopathology, immunohistochemistry and extent of dissemination, have been analysed to throw light on susceptibility to metastasis brain. 35 patients with brain metastasis treated in a period of 5 years were studied retrospectively. 40% of the patients were young (age group 31- 45 years) and 50 % presented with only headache. There was strong association between occurrence of multiple metastasis brain (against single lesion brain) and visceral /bone spread. Breast was the most common primary site in the whole group while lung was commoner in exclusive brain metastasis subset and patients in stage four at initial presentation itself. This signifies the need for screening for lung malignancy in the high risk group to detect at an earlier stage. Lung cancer patients have 4 times more chance of having brain metastasis with no visceral or bone metastasis. In breast cancer 17% patients have exclusive brain metastasis. In 2 patients PET CT detected asymptomatic metastatic lesions brain.

Keywords: Metastasis brain, Secondaries brain.

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Vidhya Narasimhan

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