Cerebrospinal fluid cell cannibalism in metastatic breast adenocarcinoma.

Female patient with breast tumor, presenting with neurological symptoms; CSF with malignant neoplasms cells (Figure). Any type of neoplasm can spread to the leptomeninges and can be detected in the CSF. Among solid tumors, the dissemination is more frequent with breast, melanomas and lung cancer1,2. The positivity rate of detecting malignant cells in the CSF varies in the literature, usualy is around 24%1,3. Giant tumoral cells sometimes appear in a form suggesting tumor cell cannibalism or endocytogenesis4. Cells of this type are likely to be found after systemic and intrathecal chemotherapy5.