Incidence of seizure in adult patients with intracranial metastatic disease

Seizures have considerable impact on a patient’s quality of life. While guidelines have been articulated to direct clinicians in their management of patients with IMD who suffer from seizure, there have been few attempts to identify the seizure rate in IMD and to determine which primary cancers may be associated with an increased seizure incidence. To determine the incidence of seizure in patients with IMD. A systematic review on seizure incidence in patients with IMD from the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) era was performed. Articles published between January 2000 and July 2014 with thirty or more consecutive adult patients were included in this study. Seizure rate was calculated using a pooled data analysis. Differences between observed and expected seizure rates between primary tumour sites were examined using the Chi square statistic and adjusted standardized residuals. The systematic search produced 18 relevant studies, with a total study population of 2012 patients. 14.6% (n = 294) had seizures. There was a significant association between primary tumour site and seizure rates. The seizure rate in patients with primary melanoma tumours was significantly greater than expected (z = 2.7; p = .006). The seizure rate in patients with primary prostate tumours was significantly lower than expected (z = −2.6; p = .008). Patients with intracranial metastasis are at significant risk for developing seizure, though at a significantly lower incidence than was estimated by studies performed during the CT era. Seizure rates appear to be greater in certain primary tumours, such as melanoma.