Prolonged survival and pulmonary metastasis after local cure of glioblastoma multiforme

A 59-year-old woman underwent a frontal lobectomy and irradiation for a glioblastoma multiforme, with further craniotomies to drain postoperative subdural and extradural infections. She survived for 5 years after the initial operation, but died as a result of pulmonary metastatic tumors. At post-mortem examination no residual intracranial tumor could be found. The pulmonary tumors were metastases from the glioblastoma. Prolonged survival, extraneural metastasis and curative local treatment are each uncommon in glioblastoma, but all occurred in this patient.