The neurology of metastatic chorion carcinoma

Although chorion carcinoma of the uterus is the seventh commonest in the comparative frequency of malignant tumours seen at the Cancer Registry of the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria (being exceeded in order of commoness by the reticuloendothelial tumours, carcinoma of the cervix, liver, breast, stomach and ovary), it is the most frequent source of tumour deposit of the brain in this hospital. Between 1960 and 1969, 197 Nigerians with chorion cancer of the uterus were admitted to UCH; in twenty-five of them the nervous system was involved during the course of their disease. The neurological involvement presented as acute cerebrovascular accident in fourteen, encephalitis in five; as primary intracranial space-occupying lesion in three cases and in one patient, as cord compression. There were no obvious neurological features in two cases in which necropsy revealed brain metastases. Involvement of the nervous system carries a poor prognosis in chorion cancer of the uterus.