Gliomas Containing Bone and Cartilage

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Abstract
Clinical and morphological features of three gliomas with bone and cartilage and fourteen cases from the literature are reviewed. Two of the reported cases were ependymomas mixed with astrocytoma and poorly differentiated spongioblastoma. Multiple foci of bone and cartilage were present. Electron microscopy in one case showed neoplastic cells with microvillous borders, cilia, basal bodies and prominent desmosomes with tight junctions, characteristic of ependymal cells. The neoplasms in six of the fourteen reviewed cases were ependymomas similar to those in the two patients we have reported, in age of onset, histopathology and midline location. These probably represent maldevelopmental or embryonal neoplasms with bone and cartilage arising from misplaced or trapped mesenchymal cells. Our third case, a choroid plexus papilloma, contained cells which ultrastructurally resembled ependymal cells except for the absence of cilia. Ossification in this neoplasm and in the remaining assortment of reviewed gliomas most probably resulted from metaplasia in the connective tissue stroma of the glial neoplasm.

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