[Brain metastases from carcinomas of the digestive organs--a comparative study with those from pulmonary carcinomas]

During the past 11 years, we have experienced 7 cases of a metastatic brain tumor with the primary lesion in the digestive organs. Their clinical courses were retrospectively compared with those of 19 cases with a brain metastases from pulmonary carcinomas. Leptomeningeal carcinomatosis was found in 2 patients of the former group but none in the latter. Six out of 7 brain metastases in the former group were found to have averaged 13 months before their appearance after the diagnosis of the primary lesion. In contrast, 14 out of 19 patients in the latter group had an onset with symptoms of a brain metastasis. The average survival after intracranial surgery on the metastatic tumor was 174 days for the former group and 268 days for the latter. The prognosis of a brain metastasis from a carcinoma of the digestive organ appears to be extremely probable.