ENETS Consensus Guidelines for the Management of Brain, Cardiac and Ovarian Metastases from Neuroendocrine Tumors

Brain MetastasesNeuroendocrine tumors are considered to be the cause of brain metastases in 1.3-1.4% of all patients with brain metastases [1,2] .In patients with NETs, the incidence of brain metastases is estimated to be 1.5-5% [3,4] .This figure, however, is probably an underestimate since many patients do not undergo routine brain imaging as a component of metastatic assessment.Brain metastases occur at different ages ranging from 11 to 1 80 years [3,5] .According to the largest report on 24 patients with brain metastases, the median age at diagnosis of brain metastasis was 60 years (range 18-85).Median time from diagnosis of the primary tumor to detection of brain metastases was 1.5 years (range 0-16), with both genders being similarly affected [3] .Time intervals from removal of a bronchial carcinoid to occurrence of brain metastases of up to 25 years are reported [6] .The spread of NET to the cerebrum has been reported in association with all primary tumor locations of the gastroenteropancreatic, bronchopulmonary and genitourinary system [1,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] .