Cerebellar anaplastic astrocytoma is infrequently encountered even nowadays, and drop metastasis with progression into spinal glioblastoma is not reported in the English literature. We report a case of cerebellar anaplastic astrocytoma receiving operation and subsequent concurrent chemoradiotherapy. One year later, progressive weakness of both lower limbs and unsteady gait occurred. Spine magne...

OBJECT The authors retrospectively analyzed the surgical treatment of adult intrinsic pontine gliomas in their department, and to enhance the understanding of technical strategies to treat this disease. METHODS 7 patients with intrinsic pontine gliomas were recruited for this study, between January 2011 and June 2013. All patients underwent preoperative MRI and Diffusion Tensor Imaging Fiber ...

Glial tumours, in particular those of astrocytic origin, are the most common primary brain tumours and account for more than 40% of all central nervous system (CNS) neoplasms (1). All neoplasms have an inherent tendency to progress towards a less differentiated, more malignant phenotype: this change reflects the sequential and cumulative acquisition of genetic alterations (2). Their incidence a...

INTRODUCTION Cerebellar high-grade astrocytoma is uncommon. Although more prone to present cerebrospinal fluid dissemination, the cerebellar location is not particularly related to the occurrence of extra-cranial metastases, which are also unusual in supratentorial malignant gliomas. CASE REPORT A 46 year-old man with cerebellar anaplastic astrocytoma who developed pancytopenia due to extensi...

Malignant astrocytomas comprise anaplastic astrocytoma (AA; grade III) and Glioblastoma (GBM; grade IV). GBM is the most malignant with a median survival of 10-12 months in patients. Using cDNA microarray based expression profiling of different grades of astrocytomas, we identified several fold increased levels of PBEF1 transcripts in GBM samples. Pre-B-cell colony enhancing factor 1 gene (PBEF...

To cite: McCusker MW, Looby S. BMJ Case Rep Published online: [please include Day Month Year] doi:10.1136/bcr-2014203958 DESCRIPTION A 54-year-old man presented with a 7-week history of morning headaches and vomiting. He described dizziness and balance problems during the preceding 6 months. Clinical examination revealed bilateral optic disc blurring and bilateral lower limb hyper-reflexia. Con...

Astrocytic brain tumors are the most frequent primary brain tumors. Treatment with radio- and chemotherapy has increased survival making prognostic biomarkers increasingly important. The aim of the present study was to investigate the expression and prognostic value of transferrin receptor-1 (TfR1) as well as ferritin heavy (FTH) and light (FTL) chain in astrocytic brain tumors. A cohort of 111...

RATIONALE An acute presentation with diffuse magnetic resonance imaging lesions can have a broad differential. Demyelination and malignancy are important considerations. Therefore, sometimes it is hard to differentiate glioma from some demyelinating diseases solely on imaging because of the similar clinical presentation and imaging features. Detection of highly specific serum autoantibody marke...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Our objective was to identify differentially expressed genes involved in the pathogenesis of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). METHODS Screening of arrayed human fetal brain and human postnatal brain cDNA libraries was performed by differential hybridization with glioblastoma multiforme and human normal brain cDNAs. RESULTS Repeated differential hybridization of more ...

The accurate grading of astrocytic tumours is of prime importance because it is critical to the patient management and survival/outcome. Although internationally accepted WHO grading system of CNS tumours is based on histological features of H&E stained sections, yet there are cases where differentiation between grade II and grade III is difficult particularly when the biopsy is small. Prolifer...