A 54-year-old Caucasian female presented with a 1 year history of intermittent numbness of the left leg progressing to bilateral, lower extremity sensory loss that advanced to include impaired vibration and proprioception. The subsequent thoracic spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan revealed a heterogeneous, avidly enhancing, centrally situated spinal cord mass involving T7 through T10 in association with thick linear enhancement of the anterior and posterior cord surfaces extending both superiorly and inferiorly. Both the cervical and lumbar spine MRI demonstrated diffuse leptomeningeal disease as well. A brain MRI revealed focal leptomeningeal enhancement in the left and right sylvian fissures, the suprasellar cistern, and the posterior fossa; a pattern consistent with metastatic disease. The patient underwent a T6-T10 laminectomy for tumor biopsy and debulking. Histology revealed a WHO grade III glioneuronal tumor with rosetted neuropil-like islands. Synaptophysin and neurofilament (NF) positive staining was noted within the neural appearing component, whereas, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) immunopositivity was evident in the fibrillary astrocytoma component of the tumor. The Ki-67 labeling index was 7%. This tumor pattern, now included in the 2007 World Health Organization (WHO) classification of central nervous system tumours as a pattern variation of anaplastic astrocytoma (Kleihues et al. In: Louis et al. (eds) WHO classification of tumours of the central nervous system, 2007), was first described in a four-case series by Teo et al. in 1999. The majority of subsequently reported cases described them as primary tumors of the cerebrum. Herein, we report a unique example of a spinal glioneuronal tumor with neuropil-like islands with associated leptomeningeal dissemination involving the entire craniospinal axis
Keywords : Astrocytoma,Biopsy,Brain,Central Nervous System,classification,Female,Ganglioglioma,Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein,history,Humans,Laminectomy,Leg,Lower Extremity,Magnetic Resonance Imaging,Meningeal Carcinomatosis,Middle Aged,Nervous System,Neuropil,Neurosurgical Procedures,pathology,Proprioception,radiotherapy,secondary,Spinal Cord,Spinal Cord Neoplasms,Spine,Synaptophysin,therapy,Universities,, Tumor,With,Neuropillike,Islands, manubrium pain
Date of Publication : 2011 Sep
Authors : Ruppert B;Welsh CT;Hannah J;Giglio P;Rumboldt Z;Johnson I;Fortney J;Jenrette JM;Patel S;Scheithauer BW;
Organisation : Department of Radiation Oncology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA
Journal of Publication : J Neurooncol
Pubmed Link : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21188469
The London Spine Unit : Harley Street UK. Specialists in Cutting Edge Technologies for Spinal Surgery
Trustpilot Reviews
Doctify Reviews
Top Doctor Reviews