Visceral and bone metastases of a WHO grade 2 meningioma: A case report and review of the literature

Abstract Meningiomas represent the most common tumours of the central nervous system in adults. Risk factors include ionizing radiation, female hormones exposure, head trauma, cell phone use, breast cancer and family history of meningioma. Despite complete surgical resection, natural history of meningiomas often includes local recurrence but very few metastatic meningiomas have been reported. Here, we report the case of a metastatic meningioma. A 43-year-old woman was firstly treated for a symptomatic parietal meningioma WHO grade II by surgical resection followed by an irradiation of the surgical bed. After surgical resection and irradiation, the patient recovered incompletely. Two months after the end of the radiation treatment, the patient presented at the emergency unit for sciatic pain revealing bone metastases that has been histologically confirmed. Moreover, imaging led to the diagnosis of liver and lungs metastasis. Despite lack of guidelines for metastatic meningioma, few treatments have been used and published for recurrent and multiple meningioma management. In case studies, some partial responses have been seen with mifepristone and improved progression-free survival rates have been obtained with hydroxyurea and sunitinib. Metastasis in meningioma is very uncommon and no specific management has been described. Hydroxyurea, sunitinib and mifepristone could be options if no clinical trial data is available.