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The literature concerning gliosarcomatous tumors is reviewed, and pathological and clinical features of the tumor are briefly discussed.

A rare case of epidural hematoma of the clivus is reported in an 11-year-old girl involved in a traffic accident which caused a severe hyperextension injury. Only one similar case has been reported in the literature. The mechanism for the formation of the hematoma of this region is discussed.

The authors report a case of cystic meningioma in a 10-month-old boy diagnosed by metrizamide ventriculography and computerized tomography. Intracranial meningioma in infants under 1 year old is extremely rare. This case is only the 16th case reported in the world literature; the other 15 cases are reviewed.

A 72-year-old man developed left facial palsy at age 14 and left-sided hearing loss at age 20. At the age of 59, he presented with gait disturbance, and a large left cerebellopontine angle tumor was detected, which had markedly destroyed the pyramidal bone. The tumor was subtotally resected, but he required two more operations at the ages of 64 and 69 because of tumor regrowth. At the present time, recurrent tumor has destroyed the occipital bone and is invading the scalp. However, even though he has several cranial nerve palsies and cerebellar ataxia, he remains in stable condition and demonstrates long-term survival. The patient's surgical specimens revealed a papillary adenoma, which was recently thought to be of endolymphatic sac origin, although the origin of this kind of tumor, whether arising from the middle ear or from the endolymphatic sac, has not been established with certainty so far. In this paper, we provide further evidence that this tumor originates from the endolymphatic sac, based on anatomical, histopathological, and embryological evidence.

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Immune deficiency of immunocompetent cells or of humoral factors are essential causes of tumor growth. The authors have investigated the transfer of immunocompetent cells – allogeneic bone marrow cell transfusion and white blood cell intracranial infusion – for the treatment of 11 malignant gliomas in infants and children as an adjuvant to surgery, radiation and/or chemotherapy. Ten cases, from 3 months to 11 years, received bone marrow cell transfusion. Two medulloblastomas and 3 pontine gliomas are dead. Five cases are alive and well 37–65 months following surgery. Among these two posterior fossa neoplasms, a medulloblastoma and a glioblastoma have survived 46 and 65 months, respectively. One cerebral glioblastoma received allogeneic white blood cells infused locally into the tumor bed: it recurred 1 year following surgery, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy. Cytolysis of the tumor cells by sensitized lymphoid cells were demonstrated in this case. The role of immunotherapy should be limited at the present time to adjuvant therapy until its effect on tumor growth is statistically confirmed. The results so far are promising, and improvement of the immunological approach in treating malignant brain tumors is under way.

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