title: Two cystic cavernous angiomas after radiotherapy for atypical meningioma in adult woman : case report and literature review.
abstract: A correlation between radiation therapy and cavernoma has been suspected since 1994. Since then, only a few cases of radio-induced cavernomas have been reported in the literature (85 patients). Most of them were children, and the most frequent original tumour had been medulloblastoma. The authors report a case of two cystic cavernous angiomas after radiation therapy for atypical meningioma in adult woman. This is the first case of cavernous angioma after radiotherapy for low grade meningioma. A 39-year-old, Latin american woman was operated on for a frontal atypical meningioma with intradiploic component and adjuvant radiotherapy was delivered (6000 cGy local brain irradiation, fractionated over 6 weeks). Follow-up MR imaging showed no recurrences of the tumour and no other lesions. Ten years later, at the age of 49, she consulted for progressive drug-resistant headache. MR imaging revealed two new well defined areas of different signal intensity at the surface of each frontal pole. Both lesions were surgically removed; the histopathological diagnosis was cavernous angioma. This is the first case of cavernous angioma after radiation therapy for atypical meningioma : it confirms the development of these lesions after standard radiation therapy also in patients previously affected by non-malignant tumours.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurological Sciences-Neurosurgery, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea Gennaro
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Ruggeri
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurological Sciences-Neurosurgery, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Pasquale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Donnarumma
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurological Sciences-Neurosurgery, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pichierri
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurological Sciences-Neurosurgery, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Delfini
keywords: Cavernoma; Cavernoma post-radiotherapy; Cavernous angioma; Cystic cavernoma; Radiation therapy