Metastatic tumours of the brain and its enveloping structures in Ibadan, Nigeria

Fifty-two cases of secondary tumours of the brain and its enveloping structures which were encountered at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Nigeria bewteen January 1965 and December 1970 are reported. All lesions were hisologically verified, forty-six at autopsy and the remaining six from biopsy specimens of the skull deposits. There were forty females and twelve males; 77% of the subjects were in the third, fourth and fifth decades of life, 15% in the sixth and seventh, and the rest in first two decades. Thirty-four of the metastases were found in the substance of the brain and the remaining eighteen in its enveloping structures (the scalp, skull and dura-mater). Of the thirty-four brain secondaries, twenty-four (70%) originated from chorion carcinoma of the uterus, six from the lungs and two each from the breast and kidney. Metastases to the skull came from many sources--cervix, uterus, prostate, adrenals, liver, bladder colon and the thyroid gland. Of the later group, follicular thyroid carcinoma was the commonest single source of secondaries.