Carcinoma of the prostate with brain metastasis

Brain metastasis from prostatic carcinoma is considered rare and usually is diagnosed at postmortem examination. The authors reviewed the tumor registry of 1314 patients with proven diagnosis of prostatic carcinoma seen at Hines VA Hospital from January 1963 to December 1978 and found that 8 of the 1314 patients (0.6%) had brain metastasis. Six of eight patients (75%) were diagnosed having brain metastasis at premortem and of these, two patients presented with brain metastasis before diagnosis of prostatic carcinoma was made. Two of four patients who received palliative whole brain irradiation survived more than 1.5 years. It is our belief that patients with prostatic carcinoma who have symptoms of brain metastasis should be worked up and given palliative whole brain irradiation.