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Second Cancer Affecting the Central Nervous System: Systematic Literature Review Exploring the Link Between Malignant
Julien Todeschi1, Guillaume Dannhoff1, Salvatore Chibbaro1
1Department of Neurosurgery, Strasbourg University Hospital, Strasbourg, France.
Background:
Glioblastoma (GBM) is a malignant primary brain cancer, among the most devastating and lethal diseases of the central nervous system. Similarly, malignant melanoma (MM) is responsible for most skin cancer-related deaths. A link between those 2 aggressive cancers has not yet been established. We present here a systematic review of the literature and an exemplificative case.
Methods:
A systematic review of the literature was conducted to assess possible commonalities between MM and GBM. An exemplificative surgical vignette of a 73-year-old patient with the occurrence of a frontobasal GBM after surgical removal of a metastasis of MM in the same location was then detailed.
Results:
Fifteen studies published in the English international literature support a link between MM and GBM, both based on epidemiologic and pathophysiologic/genetic aspects. This theory is reinforced by our surgical vignette of a collision tumor with the occurrence of both tumors in the same location several years apart.
Conclusions:
The evidence reported in the literature, as well as our surgical vignette, support a likely link between the pathogenesis of GBM and MM.
