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CASE REPORT
Avoiding misdiagnosis: cystic calcified brain metastases of uterine cervical cancer mimicking neurocysticercosis
  1. Jacopo Fantini,
  2. Arianna Sartori,
  3. Paolo Manganotti
  1. Department of Medical, Surgical and Health Sciences, Neurology Clinic, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
  1. Correspondence to Dr Jacopo Fantini, jacopo.fantini{at}gmail.com

Summary

The radiological finding of multiple calcified brain lesions is atypical for brain metastases and in absence of a clear evidence of disseminated neoplastic disease the differential diagnosis may be difficult. Calcified brain metastases (CBM) are rarely encountered in clinical practice and they mostly arise from lung, breast and gastrointestinal primitive tumours. Only one case of uterine cervical carcinoma (UCC) with CBM has been reported so far. We describe the case of a 41-year-old Caucasian woman with a history of hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy for UCC 3 years prior to observation and no evidence of neoplastic recurrence that developed cystic CBM. Owing to their peculiar radiological appearance, lesions were initially misidentified as neurocysticercosis, the most common parasitic infection of the central nervous system. We offer the reader some important teaching points for the differential diagnosis and discuss the rarity of our case.

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Footnotes

  • Contributors JF acquired the data. JF and AS participated in the conception and design of the paper and drafted the manuscript. JF, AS and PM interpreted the data, revised the manuscript for intellectual content and approved the final version of the manuscript.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Patient consent Obtained.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.