title: Primary central nervous system lymphomas: clinico-pathologic and immunohistochemical analysis of 30 cases.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Primary Central Nervous System lymphomas are attracting mounting interest because of their increasing incidence in an immunocompetent population and as sporadic tumors. A new lymphoma classification has been proposed, based on new morphologic entities and on advanced immunologic and molecular techniques.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study concerns the clinical and pathologic characterization of 30 cases of primary central nervous system non-Hodgkin's lymphomas in non-HIV patients using a wide monoclonal antibodies panel. Comparative evaluation of effectiveness and reliability between surgery and stereotactic biopsies was made according to Kiel and Real lymphoma classifications. There were 24 high-grade and only 3 low-grade lymphomas. Three stereotactic biopsies were not diagnostic.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Stereotactic procedures were confirmed as the most immediate and least aggressive approach to CNS tumors, but inadequate sampling caused a deadlock to a full lymphoma diagnosis, which requires immunohistochemical and sometimes also molecular studies. However, it should be stressed that morphologic criteria (tumor cell cytology and neoplastic cuffing of the vascular walls) maintain their diagnostic effectiveness.
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Anatomia Patologica, Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy. altavill@ux1.unipd.it
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Altavilla
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cusatelli
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Salmaso
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gardiman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000912:Antibodies, Neoplasm; D016543:Central Nervous System Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D000912:Antibodies, Neoplasm