[Oncologic treatment of oto-neuro-ophthalmological metastases and their complications].

INTRODUCTION: Cerebral metastases and the sequelae of their treatment are the major cause of neurological symptoms in patients with cancer.

OBJECTIVE: In this article we review the oto-neuro-ophthalmological complications of the treatment of metastases with radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy.

DEVELOPMENT: When speaking of the iatrogenic diseases caused by radiotherapy treatment of metastases, it is important to emphasize that the major complications of this form of treatment are seen in the long term, in general, months or years later. When dealing with incurable diseases, such as most metastatic cancers, the benefit/risk balance of each therapeutic option has to be taken into account. Thus we have a population of patients with symptoms secondary to metastatic involvement, and with an overall life expectancy which may be measured in months. The oto-neuro-ophthalmological toxicity of the chemotherapy may present as an infrequent and unexpected complication or as a usual, expected secondary effect of the drug used. A large variety of drugs are used for the systemic control of cancer (cystostatic drugs, hormones and modifiers of the biological response) which, in one way or another, may cause neurological signs.

CONCLUSION: The increasingly frequent use of high dose chemotherapy and of the combined use of chemotherapy and radiotherapy mean that these types of toxicity have become common clinical syndromes in current oncological practices.