CNS tumor
Ependymal tumors
Anaplastic ependymoma
Author: Eman Abdelzaher, M.D., Ph.D.
Topic Completed: 1 August 2012
Minor changes: 25 September 2020
Copyright: 2002-2021, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.
PubMed Search: Anaplastic ependymoma [title]
Table of Contents
Definition / general | Case reports | Microscopic (histologic) description | Microscopic (histologic) imagesCite this page: Abdelzaher E. Anaplastic ependymoma. PathologyOutlines.com website. https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/cnstumoranaplasticependymoma.html. Accessed April 15th, 2021.
Definition / general
- Grade III of IV
- Rare; usually infants and children
- Often cerebrum or cerebellum of children / young adults but all ages and locations
- Infiltrates leptomeninges, spreads along CSF pathways like medulloblastoma
Case reports
- 23 year old man with 5.5 x 5.2 cm intra-axial cystic mass lesion in right parietotemporal region (Case of the Week #427)
- 26 year old man with supratentorial tumor with giant cells (Mod Pathol 1998;11:398)
- 27 year old woman with headaches (University of Pittsburgh: A 27 Year Old Female with Three Week Progressive Headache, Nausea and Vomiting)
- 48 year old woman with gliosarcoma arising from anaplastic ependymoma (Hum Pathol 2004;35:512)
Microscopic (histologic) description
- Marked hypercellularity, nuclear atypia and brisk mitotic activity
- May have intramural or glomeruloid vascular proliferation, pseudopalisading necrosis, perivascular rosettes
- Discrete or infiltrative margin
- Nonpalisading necrosis is not sufficient for diagnosis in otherwise low grade ependymoma
Microscopic (histologic) images
Contributed by Roopa Arora, M.D. (Case #427)
H&E
GFAP
EMA
MIB1
