Brain Tumors Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Brain Tumors, including details on symptoms, benign and malignant tumors, gliomas, screening, treatment.

Pigmented astrocytoma with suprasellar location: case report and literature review.

Krossnes BK, Mella O, Wester K, Mørk SJ

The Gade Institute, Department of Pathology, Haukeland University Hospital, 5021 Bergen, Norway. bkkr@haukeland.no

A large suprasellar, partly cystic, contrast-enhancing tumor was resected from a 19-year-old woman who presented with bitemporal visual field defects and reduced visual acuity. Grossly, the tumor was brown and located in the subarachnoid space. Histologically, it was composed of spindle and pleomorphic cells, including giant tumor cells, with markedly pleomorphic nuclei. Reticulin fibers surrounded single cells and small groups of cells. Very few mitotic figures were found in the tumor, and no necrosis or microvascular proliferation was seen. The tumor thereby resembled a pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma. Many of the tumor cells contained a dark-brown intracytoplasmic pigment, shown to be melanosomal melanin by ultrastructural examination. Immunohistochemical examination demonstrated that the pigment was present in glial tumor cells. Only four cases of pigmented astrocytic tumors have been published, none of these were suprasellar. Our patient received fractionated radiotherapy with a total dose of 48.6 Gy 14 months after gross total removal of the tumor. She is alive without relapse after 12-year follow-up.

Published 25 October 2004 in Acta Neuropathol (Berl), 108(5): 461-6.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Brain Tumors Research Today. All Rights Reserved.