Initial Presentation Of Multiple Myeloma As Intraparenchymal Brain Mass

38 year old African female presented with complaints of severe headache which had started couple of weeks prior to presentation and was progressively becoming worse. Patient underwent a CT scan of the head which revealed a 3.2 X 3.3 X 3.7 cm lobulated hyperdense periventricular mass in the left temporoparietal area with surrounding vasogenic edema with mass effect on the adjacent left lateral ventricle and 0.6 cm midline shift to the right with uncal herniation and effacement of left cerebral peduncle with dilatation of left temporal horn. MRI of the brain revealed a 3.1 X 2.6 X 3.6 cm lobulated mass in left lateral ventricle trigone. Radiologically, differential diagnoses included intraventricular meningioma, lymphoma, choroid plexus papilloma or metastasis. Patient underwent left craniotomy for tumor resection. Patient had an uneventful post-operative recovery and the resected tumor was high grade malignant neoplasm with plasmablastic features and immunohistochemical stains revealed that the tumor cells were positive for CD138, CD30, MUM-1, Bcl-2, vimentin and lambda light chains and were negative for kappa light chains, CD3, CD20, PAX-5, CD79a, GFAP, cytokeratin, AE1/AE3, synaptophysin, chromogranin, EMA, S-100, Melan-A, CD45, CD56 and EBV(EBER-ISH). Ki-67 was about 80%. Serum protein electrophoresis (SPEP) was sent that showed an M-spike of 3.3 g/dl that was IgG lambda. A bone marrow biopsy showed 100 % infiltration with plasma cells. Patient underwent a CT chest/abdomen/pelvis and a PET/CT scan which revealed multiple scattered subcutaneous masses throughout the body and an asymptomatic mass near spinal cord at C1. Patient was treated with VTD-PACE regimen (bortezomib, thalidomide, decadron, cisplatin, liposomal doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, and etoposide). She received two cycles of VTD-PACE chemotherapy regimen with excellent response to the treatment. Her M-spike protein which prior to treatment was 3.3 g/dl disappeared after second cycle of chemotherapy and her subcutaneous lesion also dramatically improved on repeat PET/CT scan. The C1 dural lesion also had significant improvement after the chemotherapy. Her IgG also decreased from 5070 mg/dl to 791 mg/dl. She was referred for autologus stem cell transplant. She was subsequently started on weekly cyclophosphamide, bortezomib and decadron.

Malignancies of plasma cells comprise 1% of malignant neoplasms which includes multiple myeloma, solitary plasmacytomas (including solitary bone plasmacytoma and extramedullary plasmacytomas) and immunoglobulin deposition syndromes. Central nervous system (CNS) involvement of multiple myeloma itself is not a common entity. Fassas et al. published data of 18 cases over a course of 10 years. Gozzetti et al. published their data of 50 patients in 2012. Of these 50 patients, 76% had osteo-dural or primary dural multiple myeloma (OD-DMM) and 24% had central nervous system myelomatosis. They found that patients treated with novel agents had better outcome than patients treated with conventional drugs. Cases with initial presentation of intracranial plasmacytomas are even rarer. Patients with CNS myeloma have poor prognosis with median survival being around 4- 5 months. Our patient had excellent response with two cycles of VTD-PACE regimen with negative M-spike, normalization of IgG and decrease in size of subcutaneous nodules and C1 spinal lesion. She has survived for 5 months without autologus transplant and is currently on weekly cyclophosphamide, bortezomib and decadron.

No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.