[Cerebral metastasis in Blacks in Senegal]

Twenty-six brain-metastases in black patients, appearing for most of them as primitive, were observed during a period of 11 years in the Neurological Clinic of the Fann U.H.C. in Dakar. They represent 13.9% of brain-tumours and 11.81% of intracranial space occupying lesions. Their etiology is very diversified: lung cancer (4, 15.4%); breast (0); liver (3, 11.5%); digestive tract (3, 11.5%); prostate gland (1); ovaries (1); parotid gland (1); thyroid gland (2); lympho-reticulosarcoma (2); melano-sarcoma (1); chorio carcinoma (3); undetermined (5, 11.5%). This series enables us to appreciate differences with African statistics, which are not numerous and with other foreign statistics. The difference of division of cancer in Africa, particularly in Senegal, explains some results such as the relative high frequency of liver-cancer in the etiology of this metastasis. But it is surprising to learn that lung-cancer is frequent and breast-cancer absent. Also to be marked is the non-negligible influence of the choriocarcinoma metastasis. Progress in approaching diagnosis, by developing scintigraphy, might facilitate extraction of solitary metastasis more often.