[Surgical treatment of brain metastases]

A series of cases of brain metastases experienced in our department were analysed, whose primaries were lung cancer in 33.2% and breast cancer in 10.8%. In the analysis of brain metastases from lung cancer, it was found that surgery was more effective in alleviation of neurological symptoms in a short time, while radiotherapy was more effective in prolongation of the survival time. The data from the Brain Tumor Registry in Japan showed that the preoperative degree of clinical malignancy played a greater role in the survival rate than the difference of the modes of treatment given. Our principles for surgical indication is also discussed.