Imagery of pineal tumors

Abstract

Pineal tumors are rare and include a large variety of entities. Germ cell tumors are relatively frequent and often secreting lesions. Pineal parenchymal tumors include pineocytomas, pineal parenchymal tumor of intermediate differentiation, pineoblastomas and papillary tumors of the pineal region. Other lesions including astrocytomas and meningiomas as well as congenital malformations i.e. benign cysts, lipomas, epidermoid and dermoid cysts, which can also arise from the pineal region. Imagery is often non-specific but detailed analysis of the images compared with the hormone profile can narrow the spectrum of possible diagnosis.