ABSTRACT
Cerebral metastases (CM) are the most common brain tumors seen in clinical practice, comprising over half of all brain tumors. The annual incidence of CM in the United States is more than 150,000 cases, compared to only 17,000 for primary brain tumors (1). About one-third of patients with systemic cancer eventually develop CM, and in patients lacking any cancer history about 15% present initially with CM (2-4). Various types of primary cancer metastasize to the brain with different frequencies. Table 1 shows the sources of CM in patients who underwent an autopsy at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (5,6). These data reinforce two major points about CM:
& Over half of all CM come from lung and breast primary sources. & Primary cancers have varied propensities to metastasize to the brain, with
highest prevalence of CM observed in melanoma patients.
