Presentation of Two Cases with Early Extracranial Metastases from Glioblastoma and Review of the Literature

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Case Reports in Oncological Medicine Volume 2016, Article ID 8190950, 5 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/8190950 Case Report Presentation of Two Cases with Early Extracranial Metastases from Glioblastoma and Review of the Literature Maria Dinche Johansen,1 Per Rochat,2 Ian Law,3 David Scheie,4 Hans Skovgaard Poulsen,1,5 and Aida Muhic5 1 Department of Radiation Biology, The Finsen Center, Rigshospitalet, Blegdamsvej 9, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark Department of Neurosurgery, The Neurocenter, Rigshospitalet, Blegdamsvej 9, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark 3 Department of Clinical Physiology, Nuclear Medicine and PET, Center of Diagnostic Investigation, Rigshospitalet, Blegdamsvej 9, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark 4 Department of Pathology, Center of Diagnostic Investigation, Rigshospitalet, Blegdamsvej 9, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark 5 Department of Oncology, The Finsen Center, Rigshospitalet, Blegdamsvej 9, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark 2 Correspondence should be addressed to Maria Dinche Johansen; Received 17 February 2016; Revised 12 April 2016; Accepted 18 April 2016 Academic Editor: Didier Frappaz Copyright © 2016 Maria Dinche Johansen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Extracranial metastases from glioblastoma are rare. We report two patients with extracranial metastases from glioblastoma. Case 1 concerns a 59-year-old woman with multiple metastases that spread early in the course of disease. What makes this case unusual is that the tumor had grown into the falx close to the straight sinus and this might be an explanation to the early and extensive metastases. Case 2 presents a 60-year-old man with liver metastasis found at autopsy, and, in this case, it is more difficult to find an explanation. This patient had two spontaneous intracerebral bleeding incidents and extensive bleeding during acute surgery with tumor removal, which might have induced extracranial seeding. The cases presented might have hematogenous spreading in common as an explanation to extracranial metastases from GBM. 1. Introduction Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most frequent adult primary tumor of the central nervous system with median survival of 14.6 months in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma. The majority of patients experience local progression within the central nervous system [1]. Extracranial metastases (ECMs) are uncommon events seen in these patients, and most patients metastasize to only one or two extracranial foci [2]. Most frequent localization of ECM is regional lymph nodes, mostly cervical, lungs, liver, and bone [2, 3]. The rarity of ECM makes epidemiological analysis challenging, but it has been suggested that the median time from diagnosis to detection of ECM is 8.5 months and the time from ECM to death is 1.5 months [2]. A study has found that 20% of GBM patients have circulating tumor cells in peripheral blood, pointing out the ability to escape the central nervous system [4]. This combined with longer survival time should increase the awareness of ECM. Here, we report two cases that demonstrate the ability of GBM to metastasize in one case to multiple organs simultaneously. 2. Case Presentations 2.1. Case 1. This case presents a 59-year-old woman with a history of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and tobacco consumption (20 cigarettes per day for 45 years). The patient visited an ophthalmologist due to three months of blurred vision and two months of headache. This revealed impaired vision (right sided homonymous hemianopsia) and memory and concentration difficulties. Contrast enhanced CT and MRI of the brain showed a 4 × 5 × 4 cm solitaire left sided occipital tumor with midline shift. At this point, helical CT 2 Case Reports in Oncological Medicine (a) (b) (c) Figure 1: Case 1. (a) Preoperative post-contrast enhanced T1 weighted MRI showing the localization of the tumor in close proximity to the falx. (b) Fused FDG PET/CT scanning at liver level 5 months after diagnosis of GBM showing multiple metabolically active metastases (blue) and inactive liver cyst (white). (c) Frontal maximum intensity projection (MIP) image of whole body FDG PET scanning identifying disseminated metastatic spread to lymph nodes (green), lungs (red), bone (purple), and liver (blue). Physiological excretion to intestines, kidneys, and the bladder. of thorax and abdomen was inconspicuous. The patient was treated with corticosteroids. Two weeks later macro radical tumor resection was achieved using Gliolan when the patient underwent left sided occipital craniotomy. During surgery, there was copious venous bleeding. Early postoperative post-contrast T1 weighted MRI showed no measurable tumor. Postoperatively the patient suffered from right sided hemianopsia. Histological examination revealed a cellular astrocytic glioma with pleomorphic nuclei, numerous mitoses, microvascular proliferation, pseudopalisading necrosis, and thrombosed vessels. Upon immunohistochemical examination, the tumor cells stained positive for GFAP, p53 (pronounced and strong in almost all tumor cells), map2, and olig2. Immunohistochemical stainings did not reveal IDH1- or ATRX-mutations. Ki67 was high. These findings were compatible with glioblastoma, WHO grade IV. PCR-analysis revealed an average O6 methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) promoter methylation of 18%. PET scanning using the radiolabeled amino acid analog O-(2-18 F-fluoroethyl)-L-tyrosine (FET) performed at radiation treatment planning revealed a few mL of active tissue close to the cortex. The patient received radiotherapy, 2 Gy/5 days per week, for a total dose of 60 Gy with concomitant chemotherapy (temozolomide 75 mg/m2 per day) for six weeks. This was followed by adjuvant chemotherapy temozolomide; the first dose was administered at 150 mg/m2 for five days and second and third cycles were administered at 200 mg/m2 for five days. Routine surveillance MRI from the start of the second series of adjuvant chemotherapy found no sign of tumor recurrence. Clinically, however, the patient complained about circumscribed pain on the right abdominal side and on the right side of her neck. This was examined at a local hospital with ultra sound, whole body FDG PET/CT scanning (Figures 1(b) and 1(c)) and three biopsies of the cervical lymph nodes. There were no signs of local recurrence at the resection cavity on brain MRI. The biopsies were examined by pathologists at the local hospital and reexamined by neuropathologists who specialize in neurooncology. Microscopic examination revealed pronounced tumor necrosis. Tumor cells were large and epithelioid with vesicular nuclei with prominent nucleoli (Figure 2(a)). Spindled cells were also observed. There were numerous mitoses. The tumor cells stained positive for S100, vimentin, CD56, and GFAP (Figure 2(b)). T (...truncated)