Brain Metastases: Epidemiological, Clinical, Diagnosis, Treatment and Outcome Features in Dakar

Brain metastases (BM) are the most frequent brain cancer. There are few studies on BM in Senegal. The aim of this study was to describe epidemiological, clinical, diagnosis, treatment and outcome features of patients diagnosed with BM. We conducted a retrospective and descriptive study of patients diagnosed with brain tumors and regularly followed at the neurosurgery department of the “Fann Teaching Hospital (CHNU-Fann)” of Dakar (Senegal) between from January 2010 to December 2017. The medical records of all the patients with evidence histologically diagnosed with BM were reviewed. In our study, 682 medical records of patients with brain tumors were reviewed, and only 20 showed histological evidence of BM (2.9%). The mean age was 45.45 years. The sex-ratio was 0.43. Brain CT scan was performed in all the patients (100%) and brain MRI in 3 patients. The brain lesions were multiple in 70% of the patients and single in 30%. The histological type of BM was adenocarcinoma (55%) and squamous cell carcinoma (45%). Five types of primary cancers were found: lung cancer (50%), breast cancer (30%), colorectal cancer (10%), melanoma (5%) and one undetermined cancer. All the patients had extirpation surgery; 50% of the patients died 7 days after the surgery; 25% had a survival of 3 months after the surgery and 25% of the patients were lost of sight. Conclusion: The improvement of the screening and diagnosis tests, and the use of the radiation treatment and chemotherapy could allow early management and decrease the death’s frequency of the patients with BM in Senegal.