Objective The occurrence of large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma(LCNEC), a kind of neuroendocrine tumor(NET), in the cranium is extremely rare. Here we report two such cases and review the literature in order to improv...Objective The occurrence of large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma(LCNEC), a kind of neuroendocrine tumor(NET), in the cranium is extremely rare. Here we report two such cases and review the literature in order to improve the diagnosis and treatment of intracranial LCNEC.Methods We report two cases of metastatic intracranial LCNEC. In case 1, the patient was diagnosed with lung carcinoma and underwent chemotherapy. Brain metastases were found six months later. The lung and intracranial lesions in case 2 were found at the same time. Results Intracranial multiple-tumor resection was performed in case 1 and the patient died 2 months later. Case 2 patient underwent surgery followed by chemotherapy with etoposide and carboplatin. Six months postoperatively, a recurrence lesion was found in the left cerebellar hemisphere. The patient was treated surgically. At present, a year after the diagnosis, the patient is still alive.Conclusion NETs of the intracranial region are extremely rare, and hence, most of our knowledge is based on lung NETs, and standard treatment strategies for intracranial NETs remain unclear. Our patients had different survival times probably due to different treatments, indicating that effective surgical resection and subsequent multi-agent chemotherapy should be administered to promote long-term survival of intracranial LCNEC patients.展开更多
文摘Objective The occurrence of large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma(LCNEC), a kind of neuroendocrine tumor(NET), in the cranium is extremely rare. Here we report two such cases and review the literature in order to improve the diagnosis and treatment of intracranial LCNEC.Methods We report two cases of metastatic intracranial LCNEC. In case 1, the patient was diagnosed with lung carcinoma and underwent chemotherapy. Brain metastases were found six months later. The lung and intracranial lesions in case 2 were found at the same time. Results Intracranial multiple-tumor resection was performed in case 1 and the patient died 2 months later. Case 2 patient underwent surgery followed by chemotherapy with etoposide and carboplatin. Six months postoperatively, a recurrence lesion was found in the left cerebellar hemisphere. The patient was treated surgically. At present, a year after the diagnosis, the patient is still alive.Conclusion NETs of the intracranial region are extremely rare, and hence, most of our knowledge is based on lung NETs, and standard treatment strategies for intracranial NETs remain unclear. Our patients had different survival times probably due to different treatments, indicating that effective surgical resection and subsequent multi-agent chemotherapy should be administered to promote long-term survival of intracranial LCNEC patients.
