Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2015 Mar;46(1):5-8.
doi: 10.1007/s12029-014-9667-y.

CNS involvement in pancreatic adenocarcinoma: a report of eight cases from the Johns Hopkins Hospital and review of literature

Affiliations
Review

CNS involvement in pancreatic adenocarcinoma: a report of eight cases from the Johns Hopkins Hospital and review of literature

Abhijeet Kumar et al. J Gastrointest Cancer. 2015 Mar.

Abstract

Purpose: CNS metastasis of pancreatic cancer is extremely rare, although systemic metastasis is very common. We present eight such cases with various forms of nervous system involvement.

Methods: Data was gathered from chart review of 800 patients with pancreatic cancer treated between 2004 and 2012 of which eight patients are described with CNS metastases.

Results: The median age of patients was 61.5 years and the median time to develop CNS metastasis was 29 months. Interestingly, two patients had no other sites of metastasis. The treatment modalities tried included resection followed by radiation, resection alone, or whole brain radiation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Morphologic and molecular features of brain metastases. Shown are high-powered views of the primary carcinoma and matched brain metastasis that developed in this patient 1 year later. Both the primary and brain metastasis show strong positive nuclear labeling for TP53, indicating a genetic mutation in the TP53 gene, whereas labeling for SMAD4 is intact indicating the SMAD4 gene is wild type. All images, ×200
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
High right parasagittal parietal likely intra-axial enhancing mass, with moderate surrounding vasogenic edema. This image is of patient 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Mass located along the anterior margin of vermis herniating into the fourth ventricle. Patient 6
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Ring enhancing mass at the right caudate head with trace vasigenic edema. The image is of patient 6

References

    1. Hidalgo M. Pancreatic cancer. N Engl J Med. 2010;362(17):1605–1617. - PubMed
    1. American Cancer society. Cancer facts and figures. Atlanta, GA: 2012.
    1. Lee YT, Tatter D. Carcinoma of the pancreas and periampullary structures pattern of metastasis at autopsy. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 1984;108(7):584–587. - PubMed
    1. Go PH, Klaassen Z, Meadows MC, Chamberlain RS. Gastrointestinal cancer and brain metastasis: a rare and ominous sign. Cancer. 2011;117(16):3630–3640. - PubMed
    1. Park KS, Kim M, Park SH, Lee KW. Nervous system involvement by pancreatic cancer. J Neurooncol. 2003;63(3):313–316. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources