Treatment of an atypical metastatic meningioma: a case report

Abstract

Meningiomas are common intracranial tumors which usually pursue a benign course. Extracranial metastases from meningiomas are very rare and the lung is the most common site. We report a 27 year old girl with an intracranial atypical meningioma with pulmonary metastasis which had been misdiagnosed as lung sequestration upon chest CT examination. She underwent subtotal surgical resection of the meningioma in 2006 and surgical removal of the lung metastasis in 2009. Then, the patient developed pleural, lung, periesophageal and diaphragmatic nodal metastases, despite only subtle increase of the intracranial residual meningioma. Therefore, she was treated by Doxil (pegylated liposomal doxorubicin) and bevacizumab with a progression of disease after three cycles and then with hydroxyurea for two months with a dimensional increase of metastatic lesions. After adding sorafenib to hydroxyurea the patient showed a further progression disease and finally died for respiratory insufficiency. Metastatic meningiomas have been rarely reported. Hydroxyurea is one of the most used drug in recurrent and metastatic meningiomas, despite modest results are obtained. Further chemotherapy strategies or biological agent must be investigated in clinical trials.