Esophageal carcinoma rarely metastasizes to the brain. Although some studies have mentioned esoph ageal cancer with solitary brain metastasis or with meningocerebral metastasis or with skull metastasis, multiple meningocerebral metastasis and extensive skull metastasis from squamous cell carcinoma of esophagus has not been reported in the literature. We encountered a case of an extensive osteolytic change of the skull and multiple meningocerebral metastases from esophageal carcinoma

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Brain Tumor Research and Treatment

Esophageal carcinoma rarely metastasizes to the brain. Although some studies have mentioned esophageal cancer with solitary brain metastasis or with meningocerebral metastasis or with skull metastasis, multiple meningocerebral metastasis and extensive skull metastasis from squamous cell carcinoma of esophagus has not been reported in the literature. We encountered a case of an extensive osteolytic change of the skull and multiple meningocerebral metastases from esophageal carcinoma

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Multiple meningocerebral metastais and extensive skull metastasis from squamous cell carcinoma of esophagus: A case report and review of literature

Multiple Meningocerebral Metastasis and Extensive Skull Metastasis from Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Esophagus: A Case Report and Review of Literature

142
INTRODUCTION
Esophageal carcinoma frequently metastasizes to the lungs 
and liver, but carcinoma of the esophagus has been considered 
an uncommon source of metastatic brain tumor [1,2]. Three 
studies from Japan reported the incidence of brain metastasis 
in patients diagnosed with esophageal cancer in the 1980s to 
early 2000s as ranging from 1.4–1.5% [3,4]. Several other stud-
ies reported that the incidence of brain metastasis in a con-
temporary series of patients with carcinoma of the esophagus 
ranged from 0.5% to 4.8% [3-5]. Although some studies have 
mentioned esophageal cancer with solitary brain metastasis 
[6-8] or with meningocerebral metastasis [1,2,9] or with skull 
metastasis [1,10], multiple meningocerebral metastasis and 
extensive skull metastasis from squamous cell carcinoma of 
esophagus has not been reported in the literature. We report 
a patient with an extensive osteolytic change of the skull and 
multiple meningocerebral metastases from esophageal carci-
Multiple Meningocerebral Metastasis and Extensive Skull 
Metastasis from Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Esophagus: 
A Case Report and Review of Literature
Min Kyun Na, Choong Hyun Kim, Jae Min Kim, Jin Whan Cheong, Je Il Ryu, Hyun Woo Kim
Department of Neurosurgery, Hanyang University Guri Hospital, Guri, Korea
Received December 16, 2015
Revised September 7, 2016
Accepted September 19, 2016
Correspondence
Choong Hyun Kim
Department of Neurosurgery, 
Hanyang University Guri Hospital, 
153 Gyeongchun-ro, 
Guri 11923, Korea
Tel: +82-31-560-2322
Fax: +82-31-560-2327
E-mail: kch5142@hmc.hanyang.ac.kr
Esophageal carcinoma rarely metastasizes to the brain. Although some studies have mentioned esoph-
ageal cancer with solitary brain metastasis or with meningocerebral metastasis or with skull metastasis, 
multiple meningocerebral metastasis and extensive skull metastasis from squamous cell carcinoma of 
esophagus has not been reported in the literature. We encountered a case of an extensive osteolytic 
change of the skull and multiple meningocerebral metastases from esophageal carcinoma.
Key Words  Brain metastasis; Esophageal carcinoma.
noma. In this report, we emphasized the clinical and radiologi-
cal findings of the patient with skull and multiple meningocer-
ebral metastases from an esophageal carcinoma, and reviewed 
the pertinent literatures.
CASE REPORT
A 71-year-old man presented with a 3-month history of 
headache and enlarging painless scalp mass on both high pa-
rietal convexities. He was undertaken esophagectomy, Ivor-
Lewis operation, for esophageal cancer and confirmed as a sq-
uamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus 3 years ago. He had 
received chemotherapy and radiotherapy for esophageal car-
cinoma. The physical examination showed a subcutaneous 
mass over both parietal convexities. There were several small 
and non-tender lymph nodes in the right supraclavicular re-
gion, but no axillary lymphadenopathy. There were no sig-
nificant deficits on the neurological examination. The brain 
computed tomography (CT) scans demonstrated brain me-
tastasis with peritumoral edema in the right temporal lobe and 
the left parietal lobe. In addition, expansile osteolytic change 
was observed in the skull vault and both parietal convexities 
(Fig. 1). The soft tissue tumor was measured about 8.9× 
CASE REPORT Brain Tumor Res Treat  2016;4(2):142-144  /  pISSN 2288-2405  /  eISSN 2288-2413http://dx.doi.org/10.14791/btrt.2016.4.2.142
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons 
Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) 
which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any 
medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright © 2016 The Korean Brain Tumor Society, The Korean Society for Neuro-
Oncology, and The Korean Society for Pediatric Neuro-Oncology
MK Na et al.
143
5.5×4.3 cm in size with intra- and extra-cranial compression 
of the brain. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans 
showed two brain metastatic lesions with peritumoral edema 
in the right temporal lobe and the left parietal lobe. Diffuse 
meningeal thickening and enhancement was also noted in 
the fronto-parietal area (Fig. 2). A CT scan of his chest showed 
diffuse wall thickening of the lower esophagus from subcari-
na to epiphrenic portion (Fig. 3A). Positron emission tomog-
raphy showed multiple metastatic foci in the brain, bones, 
right lung, liver, anastomotic site of esophagus, right adrenal 
gland, and mesenteric lymph nodes (Fig. 3B). The patient 
underwent operation by a bicoronal scalp incision with bi-
frontal craniectomy, removal of the bony tumor, and cranio-
plasty. Pathological findings revealed the metastatic squamous 
cell carcinoma. The final diagnosis was squamous cell carci-
noma of the esophagus with skull metastasis. The patient was 
referred for concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy. 
Two month later, the patient complained chest discomfort and 
underwent fine needle aspiration biopsy, diagnosed as a small 
cell lung cancer. Then, he could not take chemotherapy due 
to his age and poor general condition.
DISCUSSION
The incidence of esophageal cancer has been increasing over 
the past thirty years [11], with an expected 16,470 cases and 
14,530 deaths in the United States in 2009 [12]. Nevertheless, 
esophageal carcinoma is among the most challenging onco-
logic problems. It is well known that esophageal cancer may 
cause distant metastasis, most frequently in the lungs, pleura, 
liver, peritoneum, and the adrenal gland. However, metastasis 
to the bones is infrequent, and skull metastasis from esopha-
geal cancer may be extremely rare [1,2]. Brain metastasis sec-
ondary to esophageal carcinoma is considered to be a rare 
event, with a reported incidence of between 0.5 and 4.8% [3-
5]. Several studies in the United States also reported low inci-
dence of brain metastasis in patients with esophageal cancer 
[5,11,13]. Although some studies have reported esophageal 
cancer with brain metastasis [6-8], dural metastasis has been 
reported only 3 case in the past literature [1,2,9]. Akhavan 
and Navabii [1] reported a case of leptomeningeal carcino-
matosis from squamous cell carcinoma of esophagus pre-
sented by hoarseness. Chen and Huang [2] reported the case 
of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma with dural and bone 
marrow metastases. This report also discussed the pathogen-
esis of unusual metastatic diseases and differential diagnosis 
of pachymeningeal thickening. Irie et al. [9] reported the case 
of solitary meningocerebral metastasis from squamous cell car-
cinoma of the esophagus. Stark et al. [14] reported the charac-
teristic clinical features of metastatic skull tumor, which are 
distinctive from those of primary skull tumor. Metastatic skull 
tumor typically appear as expansile, osteolytic, hypervascular 
lesions and MRI scans showed iso- or hypointensity on T1 
and T2 weighted images with moderate enhancement. And 
Fig. 2. Magnetic resonance images with gadolinium enhancement of the patient. A: Axial image shows well-enhanced mass the in right 
temporal lobe and left parietal lobe. Diffuse dural thickening and enhancement was also noted in bilateral pachymeninges (arrows). Coronal 
(B) and sagittal (C) images represent the extensive osteolytic lesion in the vault of the skull and enhanced tumor in the left temporal lobe.
A B C
Fig. 1. Brain computed tomography scans and skull X-ray showed osteolytic metastasis at vertex and both parietal high-convexities.
144  Brain Tumor Res Treat  2016;4(2):142-144
Meningocerebral Metastasis of Esophageal Carcinoma
can cause local swelling that is usually painless, but they rarely 
lead to neurologic dysfunction [14]. However, Ellis and Mc-
Donald [15] reported a case of acute epidural hematoma sec-
ondary to skull metastasis from esophageal carcinoma, which 
proved that skull metastasis can also lead to severe neurolog-
ic dysfunction. For the metastatic skull tumor, surgical treat-
ment should be considered in patients who have neurologic 
consequences, for example, high risk of extradural or intra-
tumoral hemorrhage or brain compression. Surgical resection 
might not cure the underlying disease, but it is a relatively safe 
and satisfactory treatment for relief of neurologic symptoms 
in patients with cranial metastasis.
This is an uncommon case of squamous cell carcinoma of 
the esophagus including leptomenigeal dissemination, exten-
sive osteolytic skull lesions, and multiple brain metastases.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors have no financial conflicts of interest.
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A
B
Fig. 3. CT and Positron emission tomography (PET) scans show 
esophageal cancer and multiple metastatic lesions. A: Contrast en-
hanced computed tomography scan of the chest showing diffuse 
wall thickening of the lower portion of esophagus (arrow). B: PET 
scans showing multiple metastatic foci in bones, right lung, anasto-
motic site of esophagus, right, and mesenteric lymph nodes.


Multiple Meningocerebral Metastasis and Extensive Skull Metastasis from Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Esophagus: A Case Report and Review of Literature.

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Multiple Meningocerebral Metastasis and Extensive Skull Metastasis from Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Esophagus: A Case Report and Review of Literature.

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