Nervous system neoplasms and primary malignancies of other sites. The unique association between meningiomas and breast cancer

Abstract

To determine whether nervous system neoplasms are associated with primary malignancies elsewhere, we studied the frequency of multiple primary tumous in patients in whom at least one of the primary tumors was within the nervous system. The patients were Conneticut residents with tumors diagnosed between 1935 and 1964. Of 135 patients, 130 had two primary tumors, four had three primary tumors, and one had four primary tumors. Only with multiple primary tumors involving the brain and breast did the number of observed cases significantly exceed the number of expected cases; eight patients who had a meningioma associated with a breast cancer accounted for this excess. Patients with breast cancer presenting with signs or symptoms of an intracranial neoplasm should be carefully evaluated, for the intracranial lesion may be a potentially curable meningioma.