Primary Leptomeningeal Gliomatosis in Children and Adults: A Morphological and Molecular Comparative Study with Literature Review

Arnault Tauziede-Espariat, Andre Maues De Paula, Melanie Pages, Annie Laquerriere, Emilie Caietta, Benoit Delpont, Gabriel Viennet, Elisabeth Medeiros De Bustos, Thierry Moulin, Christine Barnerias, Elodie Vauleon, Jacques Grill, Dan Chiforeanu, Alexandre Vasiljevic, Pascale Varlet

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    11 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    BACKGROUND: Primary leptomeningeal gliomatosis (PLG) is a poorly recognized tumor of the central nervous system. OBJECTIVE: To describe the histopathological, immunohistochemical, and molecular features of PLG. METHODS: Results of our multicentric retrospective study of 6 PLG cases (3 pediatric and 3 adult) were compared with literature data. RESULTS: The mean age was 54.7 years for adults and 8.7 years for children, with 3 males and 3 females. Clinical symptoms were nonspecific. Cerebrospinal fluid analyses showed a high protein level often associated with pleocytosis but without neoplastic cells. On neuroimaging, diffuse leptomeningeal enhancement and hydrocephalus were observed, except in 1 case. PLG was mostly misinterpreted as infectious or tumoral meningitis. The first biopsy was negative in 50% of cases. Histopathologically, PLG cases corresponded to 1 oligodendroglioma without 1p19q codeletion and 5 astrocytomas without expression of p53. No immunostaining for IDH1R132H and no mutations of IDH1/2 and H3F3A genes were found. Overall survival was highly variable (2-82 months) but seems to be increased in children treated with chemotherapy. CONCLUSION: This study shows the difficulties of PLG diagnosis. The challenge is to achieve an early biopsy to establish a diagnosis and to begin a treatment, but the prognosis remains poor. PLG seems to have a different molecular and immunohistochemical pattern compared with intraparenchymal malignant gliomas.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)343-352
    Number of pages10
    JournalNeurosurgery
    Volume78
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2016

    Keywords

    • Histones
    • Isocitrate dehydrogenase
    • Primary leptomeningeal gliomatosis

    Cite this