Most cancers can spread, or metastasize, to elsewhere in the body. Some cancers are more likely to spread to the brain or spine (collectively called the central nervous system (CNS)), including lung, breast, kidney, colon, melanoma, prostate, ovarian, and thyroid cancers. Metastatic brain tumors affect five times as many patients as do primary malignant brain tumors like glioblastoma.
Lung cancer is the leading source of brain metastasis in males, while breast cancer is the leading source for females.
For spine metastasis, the most frequent primary cancer is prostate for males and breast for females. The incidence of CNS metastasis, particularly brain metastasis, is increased as cancer treatments are becoming more effective at treating cancer outside of the brain and patients are living longer with metastatic cancer.
Patients who develop brain and spine metastasis not only sometimes face a poor prognosis, but also suffer debilitating symptoms including headaches, change in consciousness / mental status, seizures, weakness / paralysis, tingling, visual loss, spinal deformities and fractures, difficulty with balance or walking, nausea and vomiting, bladder or bowel control problems, and others issues that affect quality of life.
Treatment options are improving for patients with brain and spine metastases thanks to improvements in medical therapies, such as targeted therapies or immunotherapies, more sophisticated radiation methods, and increasingly precise and minimally invasive surgical techniques that can be employed within the CNS. What was once a devastating diagnosis that offered little hope is now a treatable condition that can warrant aggressive therapy.
However, education around brain and spine metastatic disease still represents a glaring and increasingly unmet need. This educational need includes awareness of the increasing incidence of brain and spine metastases, awareness of what they can mean for prognosis and quality of life, and awareness of what the various treatment options really are, as well as where they can be found. Satisfying this need is not just crucial for patients and their caregivers, but also for providers and the wider medical community.