Extra and intramedullary anaplastic ependymoma in thoracic spinal cord.

Abstract

Spinal ependymoma occupies 40-60% of primary spinal cord tumors and has a feature of intramedullary tumor. The tumor most commonly arises from the central canal of the spinal cord, the conus medullaris or the filum terminale and its pathological features are usually benign. Unlike above characteristics, intra and extramedullary ependymomas are reported very rarely and have wide variety of histological features. We present a rare case of spinal anaplastic ependymoma with an accompanied exophytic lesions extramedullary as well. The tumor was poorly delineated between a spinal cord and the extramedullary components in operative view. After we had confirmed the frozen biopsy as anaplastic ependymoma, the remnant mass embedded in the spinal cord was remained because of its unclear resection margin and the risk of neurological deterioration. She underwent radiotherapy with 50.4 Gy, and there were newly developed mass lesions at the lumbosacral region on the MRI, 14 months postoperatively.