[The treatment of brain metastasis from breast cancer]

From 1975 through 1988, 25 patients with a brain metastasis from a breast cancer received treatments that varied, according to their systemic condition. Of this number, 13 patients were selected for a surgical removal followed by radiation and inoperable patients (3 of this number had meningeal carcinomatosis) with a serious widespread metastasis were treated by radiation only. The median survival time in the former group was 12 months with a 1-year survival rate of 58.3% and that of the latter group (excluding the meningeal carcinomatous cases) was 7 months with a 1-year survival rate of 20%. The median survival of all 25 patients was 7 months with a 1-year survival rate of 33%. At the diagnosis of the brain metastasis, 88% had metastasis to organs other than intracranial sites and most patients died because of the progression of the metastasis at these other sites. Thus, surgical removal of the brain metastasis, followed by radiation therapy, should be considered for patients without a widespread systemic metastasis. Survival for such cases would be more than 1 year.