title: Anaplastic ependymoma with holocordal and intracranial meningeal carcinomatosis and holospinal bone metastases.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Ependymomas are the most frequent intramedullary neoplasms in adult patients. Anaplastic histology, extramedullary location, meningeal dissemination at initial diagnosis, and extraneural metastases are rare findings. We describe a case of extramedullary anaplastic ependymoma that presented with holocordal and intracranial leptomeningeal carcinomatosis and bone metastases in all the vertebral bodies and the sternum. Such an aggressive dissemination at initial diagnosis has not been previously reported.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 36-year-old woman presented with headache, multiple cranial nerve palsies, visual hallucinations, confusion, hemiparesis, hemihipoestesia, episodes of disconnection, and toxic syndrome. Magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography scan revealed leptomeningeal carcinomatosis in the brainstem, the cerebellum, and along the whole spinal cord. Various nodular, intradural extramedullary lesions were present at multiple dorsal and lumbar levels. Metastatic bone disease affected all the vertebral bodies and various extraspinal bones. An intradural and bone biopsy was performed at L4, providing the diagnosis of anaplastic ependymoma (World Health Organization grade III) with focal neuronal differentiation. Despite chemotherapy, the patient's symptoms quickly progressed, and she died 7 weeks after diagnosis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To our knowledge, there are no previous descriptions of ependymomas with this extensive leptomeningeal, spinal, intracranial, and extraneural dissemination at clinical onset. Bone metastases in spinal ependymoma have not been previously reported.
authors: Neurosurgery Department, University Hospital Dr. Josep Trueta, Girona (Girona), Spain. sgf_39@hotmail.com
authors: Jordi
authors: J
authors: Pérez-Bovet
authors: Jordi
authors: J
authors: Rimbau-Muñoz
authors: Secundino
authors: S
authors: Martín-Ferrer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001706:Biopsy; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary*; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000473:pathology; D004806:Ependymoma / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology*; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D055756:Meningeal Carcinomatosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology*; D013120:Spinal Cord Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology