Dural metastatic cancer from primary breast carcinoma.

ABSTRACT

Dural metastasis of metastatic breast cancer has become an increasingly diagnosed entity due to advanced radiological imaging. We present an autopsy case of a 51-year-old woman who presented with dizziness, had dural metastasis with subdural hematoma from a primary high-grade invasive ductal breast carcinoma. The pathogenesis of dural metastasis in our case was due to hematogenous dissemination while the subdural hematoma was due to destruction of vessels by tumor cells. The postmenopausal age and the high-grade histology of our case according to published literature signify a poor prognosis and would have meant an ante mortem median survival time of less than one year. Several studies have shown that treatment of intracranial metastatic cancer improves survival. Early recognition and diagnosis of symptoms of dural metastasis will alleviate the neurological complications of dural metastatic breast cancer. Our case report attempts to contribute to the understanding of dural metastasis in breast cancer and emphasize the importance of CNS surveillance in the treatment of a systemic primary cancer.