Mixed glioneuronal tumors of the spinal cord in two children

Excerpt

Advances in immunohistochemistry have helped to improve classification schemes for central nervous system tumors. Particularly striking has been the recent attention on a growing list of neoplasms with mixed glial and neuronal elements [2]. These include well-defined examples like gangliogliomas and rosetted glioneuronal tumors, as well as newer entities that are currently difficult to classify, often designated simply as mixed glioneuronal tumors (GNT) [1, 5]. At least 43 cases of low grade GNTs have been reported, to which over 40 malignant forms have been recently added [8, 9]. It is unclear whether these glioneuronal tumors belong to a single category or represent multiple diagnostic entities. At least 11 of the documented low-grade tumors have been of the ‘rosetted’ variant, of which only 1 was located in the spinal cord [3]. We present 2 additional cases of mixed GNTs located in the thoracic spinal cord, 1 of which had clear areas of neurocytoma-like ‘rosetting’. Both were seen in children, had associated syringomyelia, and displayed overlapping histological features reminiscent of pilocytic astrocytomas. …