Significance of Surgical Treatment for Metastatic Brain Tumor in a Patient with Terminal Cancer
- VernacularTitle:末期癌患者の転移性脳腫瘍に対する手術療法の意義
- Author:
Takahisa KANO
1
;
Yoshinobu MORITOKI
2
;
Ikuo TAKAHASHI
1
;
Keisuke OTA
1
;
Hirotada KATAOKA
1
;
Tomomi KAWAGUCHI
1
;
Takahiro SUZUKI
1
;
Kota HIRAGA
1
;
Hikaru TSUZUKI
1
Author Information
- From:Journal of the Japanese Association of Rural Medicine 2020;69(4):399-
- CountryJapan
- Language:Japanese
- Abstract: We performed gamma knife treatment for multiple brain metastases including a left frontal lobe lesion in a patient in his 60s who had renal cell carcinoma. After treatment, the left frontal lobe lesion initially shrank but then began to grow again, resulting in extensive edema, right hemiparesis, impaired activities of daily living (ADL), and decreased motivation. Although the renal cell carcinoma was in the terminal stage, we judged that recovery of ADL could be expected by removing the left frontal lobe lesion and therefore performed craniotomy tumor removal. As a result, the patient’s motivation and right hemiplegia markedly improved and ADL dramatically improved. Although the period from craniotomy tumor removal to death was as short as 2 months, significant improvement of ADL during this time was achieved by removing the tumor. Tumor resection for metastatic brain tumors is rarely performed in the setting of end-stage cancer. However, this case highlights the potential of brain tumor resection as palliative treatment that can be considered for improving ADL even in patients with terminal cancer.
