The management of brain metastasis in nonseminomatous germ cell tumours

To review our experience of patients with brain metastases from nonseminomatous germ cell tumours (NSGCTs) and to indicate important clinical observations.

Between 1990 and 1996, 167 patients with metastatic NSGCT were treated in our department; 11 had brain metastases (eight with solitary metastases and three with multiple lesions, mean age 27 years, range 18-41). These patients were treated initially with either; cisplatin, bleomycin, etoposide and/or cisplatin, vincristin, methotrexate, bleomycin, actinomycin-D, cyclophosphamide, etoposide and intrathecal methotrexate chemotherapy protocols. Six patients received chemotherapy alone, one had chemotherapy plus radiotherapy and four had all three treatments. Patients with brain metastases were classified according to mode of presentation, and their treatments and outcomes analysed.

Ten patients presented with symptoms related to intracranial lesions, e.g. intractable headache, seizures, severe vomiting, hallucinations and hemiparesis. All patients with brain metastasis had bulky thoracic disease. The incidence of clinical brain metastases in patients with advanced thoracic disease was 32% (11/34). Four patients with brain metastases at presentation were alive after 3, 12, 34 and 47 months. The only patient with isolated brain relapse died within 7 months, despite combined treatment. Two of the five patients who developed brain metastases during the course of the disease are alive with no evidence of disease at 3 and 6 months after salvage chemotherapy.

Patients with single brain metastasis seem to have a better prognosis in the present than in other reported series. Chemotherapy was used initially, followed by surgery and radiotherapy in those who did not achieve complete remission with chemotherapy. Patients with progressive disease and multiple brain metastasis do not seem to benefit from initial surgical resection. Importantly, a significant proportion (32%) of patients with bulky lung metastases had or subsequently developed brain metastases. Thus it is suggested that routine cranial imaging should be performed in patients with bulky thoracic disease.