Cancer spread to the central nervous system (CNS) often is diagnosed late and is unresponsive to therapy. Mechanisms of tumor dissemination and evolution within the CNS are largely unknown because of limited access to tumor tissue. We sequenced 341 cancer-associated genes in cell-free DNA from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) obtained through routine lumbar puncture in 53 patients with suspected or known CNS involvement by cancer. We detected high-confidence somatic alterations in 63% (20 of 32) of patients with CNS metastases of solid tumors, 50% (six of 12) of patients with primary brain tumors, and 0% (zero of nine) of patients without CNS involvement by cancer. Several patients with tumor progression in the CNS during therapy with inhibitors of oncogenic kinases harbored mutations in the kinase target or kinase bypass pathways. In patients with glioma, the most common malignant primary brain tumor in adults, examination of cell-free DNA uncovered patterns of tumor evolution, including temozolomide-associated mutations. The study shows that CSF harbors clinically relevant genomic alterations in patients with CNS cancers and should be considered for liquid biopsies to monitor tumor evolution in the CNS.