Central Nervous System Tumor Markers

Abstract

Tumors of the human central nervous system (CNS) can be divided into two large groups: primary and metastatic. Although primary CNS tumors are less common than metastatic tumors, primary tumors are seen at a rate of about 10,000–15,000 per year or 0.5–2/100,000 population. This is a higher incidence than is seen in Hodgkin’s disease. Primary CNS tumors are also the most common solid tumors of childhood (Jellinger, 1978; Posner et al., 1979). Although a large number of systems for the classification of primary CNS neoplasia has been generated during the last century, primary intracranial tumors are now categorized using one of a small number of systems. The most common primary CNS tumors of adults are of glial origin, including astrocytomas, glioblastomas, oligodendrogliomas, and ependymomas. Other tumors are of questioned origin. Included here are medulloblastoma, a tumor of childhood, and hemangioblastoma, a tumor classically described as being of blood vessel origin; that concept is, however, now under scrutiny. Several types of meningiomas develop from the tissues covering the brain, the leptomeninges. The adenohypophysis is the source of four types of pituitary adenomas; some of these benign tumors secrete pituitary hormones. A discussion of CNS tumor morphology and classification is outside the limits of this review and if the reader wishes a comprehensive treatment if this subject, he is referred to Burger and Vogel (1976) and Russell and Rubinstein (1977).