What are leptomeningeal metastases?

How it happens

Leptomeningeal metastases are also called:

• carcinomatosis meningitis

• leptomeningeal disease

• leptomeningeal carcinomatosis

• neoplastic meningitis

Cancer cells can reach the meninges by travelling in the bloodstream from a cancer somewhere else in the body. Or they might spread from a secondary cancer that has already developed in the brain.

A secondary cancer happens when:

• cancer cells break away from where the cancer first started (the primary cancer)

• spreads to another part of the body

A secondary cancer is also called metastases.

How common are leptomeningeal metastases?

Between 5 to 10 out of every 100 people (5 to 10%) with ​solid tumours​ might develop leptomeningeal metastases. It is most common in people with breast or lung cancer or melanoma skin cancer. In people with blood cancer, 5 to 15 out of every 100 people (5 to 15%) might develop leptomeningeal metastases.

You could talk to your cancer specialist or specialist nurse if you are worried about this.

Symptoms of leptomeningeal metastases

Cancer cells in the covering of the brain can cause a range of symptoms, including:

• headaches

• changes to your sight, such as double vision or loss of sight

• confusion

• weakness

• seizures (fits)

• feeling sick (nausea)

• vomiting

• hearing changes

• facial drooping

• pain in your lower back, legs or neck

• mental changes such as mood and behaviour

• changes to how you walk

• numbness or weakness of one or both legs and of your bottom

• problems passing wee (urine) or poo (stool)

Diagnosis of leptomeningeal metastases

It can be difficult to diagnose leptomeningeal metastases. It might show up on an MRI scan, or cancer cells might be found in fluid taken from the spine by a lumbar puncture. 

A lumbar puncture is a test to check the fluid that circulates around the brain and spinal cord. The lumbar puncture needle goes through the skin into the small of your back and into the space around the spinal cord. 

Read about the different cancer tests

Leptomeningeal metastases treatment

Some people may not be able to have treatment for their cancer because they are too unwell. You will have medicine to control any pain or other side effects you may be getting. 

Find out about treating leptomeningeal metastases

Leptomeningeal metastases survival

Most people worry about their outlook (prognosis) when they have a secondary cancer. Your individual outlook depends on many factors including:

• whether the cancer has spread to more than one part of your body

• how quickly it is growing

• how it responds to treatment

Treatment for leptomeningeal metastases aims to control the growth of the cancer and relieve symptoms. Treatment might be able to control the cancer cells in the meninges for some months. With newer targeted cancer drugs, this might possibly be more than a year for certain cancers. 

It is difficult for doctors to predict someone’s outlook, and this uncertainty can be hard to deal with.