Background: In musculoskeletal sarcomas, brain metastases are rare, but severely affect quality of life.
Methods: All patients with musculoskeletal sarcomas who were treated at our institutions from 1975 to 1997 were reviewed for examples of brain metastasis.
Results: Of 480 sarcoma patients, 179 had distant metastases, including 20 patients with brain metastases (4.2%). Alveolar soft part sarcoma (3/4), extraskeletal Ewing's sarcoma (2/8), rhabdomyosarcoma (2/13) and bone Ewing's sarcoma (2/18) tended to metastasize to the brain. All 20 patients had distant or local relapses and 16 of the 20 patients had pulmonary metastases. Three patients underwent surgical treatment and two of them survived over 1 year. Mean survival after diagnosis of brain metastasis was 5.1 months.
Conclusions: Patients with alveolar soft part sarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma and pulmonary metastases have a high risk of brain metastasis.