Desmoplastic cerebral astrocytoma of infancy: Light microscopy, immunocytochemistry, and ultrastructure
✍ Scribed by Jean-Pierre de Chadarévian; Jogi V. Pattisapu; Eric N. Faerber
- Book ID
- 102671001
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1990
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 1004 KB
- Volume
- 66
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0008-543X
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✦ Synopsis
The first detailed ultrastructural study of a superficial desmoplastic cerebral astrocytoma of infancy is reported. This is a neoplasm which mimics a mesenchymal tumor, originally described in 1984 under the name of "superficial cerebral astrocytoma attached to dura." This tumor, which is believed to have a good prognosis, was resected from the frontoparietal region of a 6.5-month-old girl, in whom it had presented as a large densely enhancing vascular and cystic mass. The ultrastructure of the tumor appeared to be distinctive, characterized by the absence of neuronal elements, and the presence of large amounts of redundant and sometimes extensively duplicated basal lamina1 material and collagen between nonpleomorphic and nonlipidized astrocytes, corresponding to the reticulin fibers seen by light microscopic analysis between the S-100 protein and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)-positive cells. The features of the tumor, its differential diagnosis, and its relationship to other pediatric supratentorial tumors are discussed. Cancer 66:173-179,1990.
ARATUTO AHD ASSOCIATES in 1984 identified, T among 483 intracranial infantile neoplasms, six meningocerebral cystic and desmoplastic tumors mimicking a mesenchymal tumor of meningeal origin.' They showed that the neoplastic stromal cells were immunoreactive for glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), which led the authors to call them "superficial cerebral astrocytomas." Based on their retrospective experience, the authors concluded that the tumor constituted a discrete clinicopathologic entity characterized by its occurrence in infancy and its favorable prognosis. Although the original publication stated that "electron microscopy was performed on formalin-fixed specimens from two cases, and revealed the presence of intracytoplasmic filaments in tumor cells as well as a surrounding basal lamina," it did not include a more detailed ultrastructural study.