Intracranial metastasis of prostate cancer: report of two cases

Abstract

Metastases from prostate cancer to the brain are very unusual and are seldom reported in the clinical literature. We report 2 cases of advanced stage prostate cancer with intracranial metastasis. One patient developed intracranial metastasis 5 years after step-up treatment. He had hormone refractory prostate cancer with a high level of prostate specific antigen (PSA). Unfortunately, he died of sepsis 3 weeks after craniotomy. The other patient with various neurologic symptoms and a normal PSA level responded to hormone therapy well. He had an uneventful postoperative course and has survived for more than 21 months after surgery. We also reviewed the literature and suggest that aggressive treatment, including neurosurgery, could improve the survival of certain patients with advanced prostate cancer with intracranial metastasis.