Type Of Intracranial Tumor Research Articles

HESRG: a novel biomarker for intracranial germinoma and embryonal carcinoma

The novel stem cell-related gene, HESRG, was first identified by our group, and its expression pattern in human tumors remains unknown. In this study, we used RT-PCR to systematically investigate the expression of HESRG in various types of intracranial tumors and found that HESRG was expressed only in germinoma and embryonal carcinoma, but hardly at all in other types of brain tumors. Real-time PCR results further confirmed this expression pattern. Subsequently, we tested 134 intracranial non-germ cell tumors and 64 intracranial germ cell tumors by immunohistochemistry. Our results showed that HESRG was expressed strongly and diffusively in the nuclei of tumor cells in intracranial germinoma and embryonal carcinoma as well as in human embryonic stem cells. No positive staining signal was observed in any other type of intracranial tumors. In germinomas, 25 of 31 showed intensive (3+) expression, four cases showed moderate (2+) immunostaining and the remaining 2 cases showed weak (1+) immunostaining. In embryonal carcinoma, 6 of 9 showed intensive (3+) immunostaining and 3 of 9 showed moderate (2+) immunostaining. These results suggest that HESRG is a novel, sensitive and specific biomarker for intracranial germinoma and embryonal carcinoma.

Neuroimaging and neuropsychological follow-up study in a pediatric brain tumor patient treated with surgery and radiation

Intracranial tumors are the most common neoplasms of childhood, accounting for approximately 20% of all pediatric malignancies. Radiation therapy has led directly to significant increases in survival of children with certain types of intracranial tumors; however, given the aggressive nature of this therapy, children are at risk for exhibiting changes in brain structure, neuronal biochemistry, and neurocognitive functioning. In this case report, we present neuropsychological, magnetic resonance imaging, proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging, and diffusion tensor imaging data for two adolescents (one patient with ependymal spinal cord tumor with intracranial metastases, and one healthy, typically developing control) from three time points as defined by the patient's radiation schedule (baseline before the patient's radiation therapy, 6 months following completion of the patient's radiation, and 27 months following the patient's radiation). In the patient, there were progressive decreases in gray and white matter volumes as well as early decreases in mean N-acetyl aspartate/choline (NAA/Cho) ratios and fractional anisotropy (FA) in regions with normal appearance on conventional MRI. At the last follow-up, NAA/Cho and FA tended to change in the direction to normal values in selected regions. At the same time, the patient had initial reduction in language and motor skills, followed by return to baseline, but later onset delay in visuospatial and visual perceptual skills. Results are discussed in terms of sensitivity of the four techniques to early and late effects of treatment, and avenues for future investigations.

Alterations in lipid peroxidation and antioxidant status in different types of intracranial tumors within their relative peritumoral tissues

Objectives Elevated levels of lipid peroxidation and changes in the concentration of enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant systems have been reported in various cancers, but there are very few reports available of lipid peroxidation due to oxidative stress in patients with intracranial neoplasms. The purpose of this study was to assess alterations in lipid peroxidation and antioxidant status in different types of tumors and to compare the results with their relative peritumoral tissues and compare the oxidative status in different grades of tumors. Patients and methods We investigated the extent of oxidative stress and the levels of antioxidants in 16 astrocytomas and 38 other different types intracranial tumors comparing the results with their corresponding peritumoral tissues and comparing the levels in between low-grade and high-grade tumors. The extent of lipid peroxidation as evidenced by the formation of thiobarbituric acid-reacting substances (TBARS), as well as the status of the antioxidant systems such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione reductase (GR) and reduced glutathione (GSH) in tumor tissues and adjacent peritumoral tissues was estimated. The tumoral tissues were also compared as to their degrees of malignancy. Results According to our results lipid peroxidation in brain tumor tissues was enhanced compared to the corresponding adjacent peritumoral tissues. This was accompanied by a significant tumoral decrease in both enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants. The low levels of antioxidants in tumor tissues, might be related to an increased use of antioxidant systems to scavenge lipid peroxides. Also a striking elevation in TBARS levels, and decrease in SOD activity and GSH levels were seen in high-grade tumors when compared with low grades. Conclusion These findings emphasize a consistent difference in the level of antioxidants between the tumoral sample and its corresponding peritumoral tissue, independently of the tumoral type, and the most pivotal action would seem to minimise exposure to endogenous and exogenous sources of oxidative stress.

Quantitative assessment of intracranial tumor response to dexamethasone using diffusion, perfusion and permeability magnetic resonance imaging

There is increasing interest in obtaining quantitative imaging parameters to aid in the assessment of tumor responses to treatment. In this study, the feasibility of performing integrated diffusion, perfusion and permeability magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for characterizing responses to dexamethasone in intracranial tumors was assessed. Eight patients with glioblastoma, five with meningioma and three with metastatic carcinoma underwent MRI prior to and 48-72 h following dexamethasone administration. The MRI protocol enabled quantification of the volume transfer constant (K(trans)), extracellular space volume fraction (nu(e)), plasma volume fraction (nu(p)), regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF), regional cerebral blood volume (rCBV), longitudinal relaxation time (T(1)) and mean diffusivity (D(av)). All subjects successfully completed the imaging protocol for the presteroid and poststeroid scans. Significant reductions were observed after the treatment for K(trans), nu(e) and nu(p) in enhancing tumor as well as for T(1) and D(av) in the edematous brain in glioblastoma; on the other hand, for meningioma, significant differences were seen only in edematous brain T(1) and D(av). No significant difference was observed for any parameter in metastatic carcinoma, most likely due to the small sample size. In addition, no significant difference was observed for enhancing tumor rCBF and rCBV in any of the tumor types, although the general trend was for rCBV to be reduced and for rCBF to be more variable. The yielded parameters provide a wealth of physiologic information and contribute to the understanding of dexamethasone actions on different types of intracranial tumors.

MRNA quantification and clinical evaluation of telomerase reverse transcriptase subunit (hTERT) in intracranial tumours of patients in the island of Crete

Telomerase is a reverse transcriptase that maintains telomeres by adding telomeric TTAGGG repeats to the ends of human chromosomes. The aim of this study was to evaluate quantitatively the mRNA expression of telomerase catalytic subunit (hTERT) in different types of intracranial tumours in relation to their histologic pattern and grade and correlate it with progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of patients. Human telomerase reverse transcriptase mRNA levels were estimated by the use of real time RT–PCR in 68 samples of intracranial tumours. It revealed statistical correlation between hTERT mRNA expression levels and the grade of the tumours (P<0.001). Patients having negative expression of hTERT mRNA had statistically longer PFS (P=0.031) and OS (P=0.047). Cox univariate regression analysis revealed that hTERT mRNA-positive patients had a high and statistically significant risk of relapse (hazard ratio (HR) of 2.24 and P=0.038). In the Cox multivariate regression model, the levels of hTERT mRNA were adjusted for tumour grade and patients age, and since there was statistically significant relationship between the levels of hTERT mRNA and the grade of the tumours (P=0.003 or P=0.006, respectively), hTERT mRNA levels could not be considered as an independent prognostic factor for PFS or OS.

Feline intracranial neoplasia: retrospective review of 160 cases (1985-2001).

The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of different tumor types within a large cohort of cats with intracranial neoplasia and to attempt to correlate signalment, tumor size and location, and survival time for each tumor. Medical records of 160 cats with confirmed intracranial neoplasia evaluated between 1985 and 2001 were reviewed. Parameters evaluated included age, sex, breed, FeLV/FIV status, clinical signs, duration of signs, number of tumors, tumor location(s), imaging results, treatment, survival times, and histopathologic diagnosis. Most of the cats were older (11.3 +/- 3.8 years). Primary tumors accounted for 70.6% of cases. Metastasis and direct extension of secondary tumors accounted for only 5.6 and 3.8% of cases, respectively. Twelve cats (7.5%) had 2 or more discrete tumors of the same type, whereas 16 cats (10.0%) had 2 different types of intracranial tumors. The most common tumor types were meningioma (n = 93, 58.1%), lymphoma (n = 23, 14.4%), pituitary tumors (n = 14, 8.8%), and gliomas (n = 12, 7.5%). The most common neurological signs were altered consciousness (n = 42, 26.2%), circling (n = 36, 22.5%), and seizures (n = 36, 22.5%). Cats without specific neurological signs were common (n = 34, 21.2%). The tumor was considered an incidental finding in 30 (18.8%) cats. In addition to expected relationships (eg, meninges and meningioma, pituitary and pituitary tumors), we found that lesion location was predictive of tumor type with diffuse cerebral or brainstem involvement predictive of lymphoma and third ventricle involvement predictive of meningioma.

Incidence studies of primary and secondary intracranial tumors: a systematic review of their methodology and results.

We reviewed the incidence studies of intracranial tumors to compare their methodology and identify whether there was evidence of true differences in incidence by time, place, age, or sex. Studies were identified from Medline (1966-95), bibliographies of relevant articles, and personal knowledge. For each study, various methodological details were recorded, along with the age-standardized incidence of all primary tumors and the crude and age/sex-specific incidences of different types of intracranial tumor. Methodological factors which significantly influenced the reported incidence were identified and the results of different studies were compared and combined in a meta-analysis if appropriate. Twenty studies (over 20,000 primary tumors) were included. Higher incidences of primary tumors were found in studies that: used many methods to identify cases (odds ratio [OR] 1.92); included a high percentage of asymptomatic patients (OR 2.03); did not require histologic confirmation of the diagnosis (OR 1.69). Studies from the 1980's reported higher incidences than in previous decades (OR 1.51), probably because of improved methodology. Comparable studies from the 1980's gave widely different incidence rates for all primary tumors (7.1-18.6 per 100,000 per year). In all studies, the incidence of neuroepithelial and meningeal tumors increased dramatically with age. Neuroepithelial tumors were 40% more common in men, whilst meningeal and cranial nerve tumors were about 80% and 40% more common in women, respectively. Further incidence studies are required to establish geographical and secular variations in the incidence of primary intracranial tumors but these must use comparable methodologies. Provisional guidelines for future studies are given.

Noisy intracranial tumours.

Transorbital sound recordings were obtained from 21 patients with intracranial tumours, 28 patients with intracranial aneurysms and 20 control patients. The group of patients with tumours consisted of 12 patients with gliomas, of whom 6 had low-grade gliomas and 6 had high-grade gliomas, and 9 patients with meningiomas. All patients with gliomas, including the subgroup of patients with low-grade gliomas, as well as patients with aneurysms, had significantly different sound recordings in comparison to control patients. Recordings from glioma patients did not differ significantly from recordings of aneurysm patients. Radiological evaluation of the tumours was performed in order to establish which tumour characteristics were associated with abnormal sound recordings. It was found that the type of tumour, i.e., histology or malignancy grade, was a significant associated factor, whereas other tumour characteristics such as size, mass effect and amount of oedema were not. In conclusion, patients with specific types of intracranial tumours produced abnormal sounds which could not be distinguished from abnormal sounds recorded in patients with aneurysms. These results may be important for the interpretation of sounds recorded for the detection of intracranial pathology, especially for aneurysm screening.

Reliability of Stereotactic Biopsy

Because of the variability of the structural features of cerebral tumors, the characteristics observed in biopsy samples may not be representative of the whole neoplasm. The reliability of cerebral stereotactic biopsy is therefore greatly debated. In order to test the value of diagnoses based on biopsy samples, the authors compared histological and cytological data obtained from a small fragment of a tumor with the definitive diagnosis obtained from surgical or necropsy specimens. An analysis of 64 cases is reported, where a correct diagnosis from the biopsy sample was achieved in 92.2% of the cases. Neuroglial tumors were more difficult to characterize than other types of intracranial tumors, with an accuracy of 81.5 %.

Low spinal fluid sugar in meningeal carcinomatosis. Report of a case

CARCINOMATOSIS of the meninges is a term employed by Fischer-Williams and associates¹to describe the rare condition in which metastatic implants of neoplastic cells grow on the leptomeninges without development of a tumor. Several types of intracranial tumors (primary and metastatic) can give rise to meningeal seeding, but most are associated with actual development of a tumor. Low spinal fluid sugar, in the absence of infection of the central nervous system, appears to be the most valuable diagnostic clue of neoplastic meningeal seeding. The cerebrospinal fluid is rarely examined for malignant cells, but this examination could well increase the diagnostic accuracy of meningeal carcinomatosis as it did in the following case. <h3>Report of a Case</h3> A 63-year-old white farmer was admitted to the Ochsner Clinic on May 5, 1965, because of progressively worsening low back pain associated with bilateral sciatica of 18 months' duration. He had consulted a number

Low Spinal Fluid Sugar in Meningeal Carcinomatosis

CARCINOMATOSIS of the meninges is a term employed by Fischer-Williams and associates1to describe the rare condition in which metastatic implants of neoplastic cells grow on the leptomeninges without development of a tumor. Several types of intracranial tumors (primary and metastatic) can give rise to meningeal seeding, but most are associated with actual development of a tumor. Low spinal fluid sugar, in the absence of infection of the central nervous system, appears to be the most valuable diagnostic clue of neoplastic meningeal seeding. The cerebrospinal fluid is rarely examined for malignant cells, but this examination could well increase the diagnostic accuracy of meningeal carcinomatosis as it did in the following case. Report of a Case A 63-year-old white farmer was admitted to the Ochsner Clinic on May 5, 1965, because of progressively worsening low back pain associated with bilateral sciatica of 18 months' duration. He had consulted a number