[Surgical and conservative treatment of metastases to the brain]

The diagnosis of metastases of malignant tumours to the brain possess still considerable clinical problems, especially if the metastasis is the first sign of malignancy. As yet no uniform opinion on the methods of successful treatment has been accepted. The reported analysis includes 139 patients with brain metastases of the lungs, breast and kidney cancer and malignant melanoma, with surgical intervention in 62 cases. A comparison of the location, clinical status and therapeutic results in single metastases showed a superiority of the surgical treatment over conservative methods. Twice as many patients survived one year after the operation as after conservative treatment, and 85-90% of all patients survived 9-12 months after the beginning of the treatment. In cases of multiple metastases the prognosis is poor and the possibilities of treatment are small, with somewhat better results obtained after radiotherapy combined with chemotherapy.