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Case report
Central nervous system metastases: a rare presentation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma
  1. Sehrish Abrar,
  2. Nasir Ali,
  3. Bilal Mazhar Qureshi and
  4. Rabia Tahseen
  1. Radiation Oncology, Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan
  1. Correspondence to Dr Sehrish Abrar; sehrishadeel499{at}gmail.com

Abstract

We report a case of a male patient. He presented with nasal obstruction and epistaxis. The MRI of the brain showed a mass in the nasopharynx and enlarged cervical lymph nodes. Besides this, there was an extra-axial, dural-based lesion in brain and subcentimetre nodules in both lungs. He received induction chemotherapy followed by chemoradiation therapy to the primary site and dural-based metastatic deposit. He re-presented with bilateral lower limb weakness. The MRI of the spine showed metastatic deposits within the thoracic cord parenchyma and meningeal deposits at the lumbar region. Palliative radiation was used to treat spinal cord and meningeal metastases. He died a few months later because of systemic disease progression. Considering the rarity of this presentation in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and lack of clear guidelines for standard treatment, we report this case to share our experience of management.

  • radiotherapy
  • ear
  • nose and throat/otolaryngology
  • head and neck cancer

https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2021-243892

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors NA is the primary radiation oncologist of this patient and he took this case in MDT for a consensus decision. RT and BMQ assisted in major planning of radiotherapy in the PEER REVIEW meeting. SA had the idea to report this case. SA and BMQ have played a major role in writing this case report. All the authors made a significant contribution to this study.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

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