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Case Reports
. 2019 Sep 10:10:172.
doi: 10.25259/SNI_166_2019. eCollection 2019.

Brain metastasis of Merkel cell carcinoma - A rare case report

Ricardo Lourenço Caramanti  1 , Feres Eduardo Chaddad Neto  2 , Lucas Crociati Meguins  1 , Carlos Eduardo Rocha  1 , Dionei Freitas de Moraes  1 , Mário José Góes  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Brain metastasis of Merkel cell carcinoma - A rare case report

Ricardo Lourenço Caramanti et al. Surg Neurol Int. .

Abstract

Background: Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare neuroendocrine skin tumor. In our knowledge, only 30 cases of brain metastasis were reported in literature. The authors report a case of 57-year-old male with elevated intracranial pressure signs, which a frontal mass with pathological diagnosis of MCC.

Case description: A 57-year-old male was admitted with a 3-month history of progressive headache, associated with nausea and dizziness. The magnetic resonance imaging showed a left frontal lobe, parasagittal, and nodular lesion with perilesional edema. The patient underwent complete surgical resection with success. The adjuvant treatment was radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

Conclusion: In our knowledge, there is a little number of cases of MCC reported in literature. Surgical management is considered in cases with intracranial hypertension or focal signs. The adjuvant treatment options are immunotherapy and radiotherapy.

Keywords: Brain metastasis; Merkel cell carcinoma; Skin neoplasm metastasis.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
(a and b) Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in axial and coronal gadolinium showing a solid cystic paramedian mass effect lesion with nodular and wall contrast enhancement. (c) MRI with axial flair sequence which an important frontal and parietal brain edema. (d and e) Postoperative axial and coronal gadolinium MRI showing complete tumor resection. (f) Abdomen MRI with multiple liver hypointense metastatic lesions.
Figure 2:
Figure 2:
Biopsy images with (a) CK20 expression positive; (b) AE1/AE2 expression positive; (c) Eosin and Hematoxylin; (d) cytokeratin positive.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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