• Omobolaji Oladayo Ayandipo, Amos Olufemi Adeleye, Ikechukwu Bartholomew Ulasi, and Temidayo Olusade Ogundiran.
• Division of Oncological Surgery, Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan/University College Hospital Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
• World Neurosurg. 2019 Jul 1; 127: 186193186-193.

BackgroundBrain metastasis (BM) from breast cancer is increasingly encountered clinically because of the continuing success in the oncological control of the primary disease. Data-driven reports on the surgical treatment of BM from breast cancer are sparse in sub-Saharan Africa.MethodsThis is a prospective cohort study of the outcome of surgical excision of BM from breast cancer in an academic surgical practice in Ibadan, Nigeria.ResultsA total of 12 consecutive cerebral metastasectomies, all in females with primary breast cancer, were recorded over the study period. The median age (range) at breast cancer diagnosis was 41 (27-72) years, and the time interval from primary disease to BM was 19 (12-29) months. The BM was the first site of systemic disease progression in all, and was heralded by headache, seizures, and hemiparesis in more than two-thirds of the patients. The brain lesions were multiple in a quarter: >4 cm large in 42% and were located supratentorial in >80%. They all achieved good recovery and in-hospital outcome after surgical lesionectomy-infra- and supratentorial craniotomies-but only two-thirds could access postsurgical adjuvant whole brain radiation therapy. Median survival after cerebral metastasectomy was 18 (11-55) months, and more than a quarter were alive for ≥3years. These survival statistics were significantly better than those of a contemporary cohort of our patients with breast cancer who also had BMs that were not surgically treated for various clinical and logistic limitations.ConclusionsSurgical resection is feasible for BM from breast cancer even in low-resource clinical practice. It has a salutary effect on the patients' quality of life.Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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