title: Symptomatic spinal cord metastasis from cerebral oligodendroglioma.
abstract: Spinal subarachnoid spread is not uncommon in brain oligodendrogliomas; on the other hand, symptomatic involvement of the spinal cord and cauda is very rare, with only 16 reported cases. We report the case of a 41-year-old man who underwent resection of a low-grade frontal oligodendroglioma 4 years previously. He was again observed because of bilateral sciatic pain followed by left leg paresis. A spine MRI showed an intramedullary T12-L1 tumor with root enhancement. At operation, an intramedullary anaplastic oligodendroglioma with left exophytic component was found and partially resected. Two weeks later, a large left frontoparietal anaplastic oligodendroglioma was diagnosed and completely resected. The patient was neurologically stable for 8 months and died 1 year after the spinal surgery because of diffuse brain and spinal leptomeningeal spread. The review of the reported cases shows that spinal symptomatic metastases can occur in both low-grade and anaplastic oligodendrogliomas, even many years after surgery of the primary tumor; however, they exceptionally occur as first clinical manifestation or as anaplastic progression. The spinal seeding represents a negative event leading to a short survival.
authors.affiliation: Neuroradiology, Department of Diagnostic Imaging, School of Medicine, University Federico II, Via Pansini 5, 80131, Naples, Italy. andrea.elefante@unina.it
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Elefante
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Peca
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Del Basso De Caro
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Russo
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Formicola
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mariniello
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brunetti
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Maiuri
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009837:Oligodendroglioma / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D013120:Spinal Cord Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary* / Q000601:surgery