Chordoid glioma in suprasellar location with extension into the third ventricle: Smear preparation morphology of a rare tumor

Abstract

We report a rare case of recurrent chordoid glioma in suprasellar region with extension into the third ventricle diagnosed peroperatively. On MRI, a brilliantly contrast enhancing lesion in the suprasellar region extending superiorly into the third ventricle and measuring 2.5 × 3 × 3.5 cm was identified. Patient had a previous history of subtotal removal of the tumor 8 months back and had received 56 Gy of postoperative radiotherapy. On smear preparation the tumor was composed of cells arranged in chords and rows in a myxoid background with sprinkling of lymphocytes. The individual cells were polygonal with moderate amount of faintly eosinophilic cytoplasm with cytoplasmic vacoules in few cells. The nuclei showed fine chromatin with small prominent nucleoli. Paraffin sections confirmed the diagnosis and on immunohistochemistry the tumor cells showed strong positivity for GFAP and focal weak positivity for EMA with low MIB-1 labeling index (<1%). To the best of our knowledge this is the first documented case of chordoid glioma described on crush cytology.