Brain metastasis: Types, methods of diagnosis and treatment in Nineveh province.

Background: Brain metastasis is the most frequent brain tumor associated with poor survival. Solitary metastasis can be treated with excision or stereotactic radiosurgery. Systemic therapy remains challenging & is evolving for different types of primary cancers.

Patient and method: This study was conducted to evaluate the most common types of primary tumors that can spread to the brain, methods of diagnosis, treatments, and survival outcomes in 72 patients with brain metastasis from primary solid tumors who were presented and treated in the Mosul oncology hospital between Jan 2018 to 2020 in Nineveh province.

Results: Breast and lung primary tumors are the most frequent primaries causing brain metastasis. Imaging studies using MRI & CT scans are more available and accessible for most of the patients. We found that WBRT is the main treatment used.

Discussion and conclusion: Stereotactic radiotherapy was not available at the time of performing this study. Surgical resections are limited to a minority of our patients. We recommend more studies for each primary tumor focusing on its pathologic and molecular characteristics and its relation to brain metastasis.

Key words: Brain metastasis, breast cancer, lung cancer.