Metastatic brain tumors are the most common type of brain tumor. These tumors represent cancer cells that have spread to the brain from another tumor site in the body, most frequently from the lung, breast, intestine, skin (melanoma), kidney and bladder. Patients with brain metastasis frequently have no symptoms and tumors are accidently found by a CT or MRI scan.
There are three important roles of Neurosurgery in the therapy of brain metastases:
- Biopsy to obtain a tissue sample of a suspected metastasis
- Resection of one or multiple metastases (up to three) if they are well accessible, symptomatic or cause brain edema.
- Radiosurgery: Suitable for small deep-seated metastases (typically three or less).
The UZ Brussel has all up-to-date treatment methods for brain metastases available including microsurgery, neuromonitoring, neuronavigation and a stereotactic radiosurgical device (Novalis LINAC) LINK if possible.
We have a group specialized for the therapy of metastatic melanoma