Isolated cerebellopontine angle metastasis from breast cancer: The added value of MR spectroscopy

Cerebellopontine angle (CPA) tumors are predominantly vestibular schwannomas and meningiomas; metastatic lesions in this location are rare, particularly in the absence of multiple brain metastases. We report the case of a 53-year-old woman with a history of invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast in HER2-positive metastatic relapse, in whom brain MRI revealed a single 28 × 24 mm mass in the right cerebellopontine...

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Clinicians evaluating CPA masses should consider metastatic disease in patients with a cancer history — MR spectroscopy may add diagnostic value when conventional MRI is ambiguous, but this is a single case report and no practice change is warranted without broader evidence.

CPA tumors are within the audiology differential; rare metastatic mimics of vestibular schwannoma can delay diagnosis, and awareness of advanced imaging tools is clinically useful for interprofessional teams.

1. 01Isolated breast cancer metastasis to the CPA is rare and can mimic vestibular schwannoma or meningioma on conventional MRI.
2. 02MR spectroscopy provided additional diagnostic information to differentiate malignant from benign CPA lesions.
3. 03Case reports provide weak evidence; findings cannot be generalised without larger studies.
4. 04Audiologists seeing asymmetric hearing loss should flag relevant cancer history for the referring physician.
5. 05Highlights the importance of multidisciplinary imaging in CPA mass workup.

PMID

42910083

DOI

10.1016/j.radcr.2026.09.078.

Journal

Radiology Case Reports

Publication type

case_report

Evidence level

4

Sample size

1

Population

Single patient with isolated cerebellopontine angle metastasis from breast cancer

Intervention

MR spectroscopy for CPA lesion characterisation

Comparator

Conventional MRI findings; differential diagnosis of vestibular schwannoma and meningioma