Here it would be good to know what type of cancer you have because Squamous Cell cancers metastasize very infrequently, while Oat Cell cancers and Adenocarcinomas occur much more frequently. With lung cancers, the majority of metastases occur about nine months after the original diagnosis. Twenty percent of patients with lung cancer will metastasize ONLY to the brain and these metastases can easily be controlled with Gamma-Knife radiation. These patients may have a long life. Metastases that occur in young patients usually occur from sarcomas, neuroblastomas or germ cell tumors.
Most metastases are multiple except for kidney which is frequently single.
Most tumors occur in the cortex of the brain, a smaller number in the cerebellum and very few in the mid brain. Metastases will frequently respond to chemotherapy and get smaller, but few will seldom disappear. If patients have mets and are starting chemotherapy, further treatments with either radiation therapy or Gamma- knife can be held off until it is seen what response patients get to chemotherapy. Brain Metastases are treated with radiation therapy or surgery. Surgery is considered only if the metastases are single and are occurring more that two years after the primary cancer has been removed.