Atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumour of the spine: report of a case and literature review

Abstract

Atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumour (ATRT) is a rare and highly aggressive malignant neoplasm of the central nervous system (CNS), which occurs predominantly in children less than 2 years of age. There are less than 50 cases described in adult. We report a case of primary spinal ATRT in a 65-year-old male who presented to us with cauda equina syndrome. To the best of our knowledge, our patient is the (1) second oldest patient to be diagnosed with ATRT and only the third case of adult spinal ATRT report in the literature; (2) first reported case of CNS ATRT occurring in a patient with non-rhabdoid renal cancer; (3) first adult patient of ATRT to present with cauda equina syndrome.

Long-term survival following additive radiotherapy in patients with atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumors

“…ATRT most often affects infants and children that are younger than 3 years of age, and these patients represent approximately 80 % of all ATRT cases [2,3]. ATRT can also occur in older children, young adults, and the elderly [1][2][3]; although, only a few cases of ATRT have involved individuals older than 65 years [2,4]. The most common site of ATRT in infancy is the posterior fossa (with approximately 55 % of cases involving this site) [19].…”

Primary atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor in the adult spine

“…[85] ATRT was first documented in an adult who presented with a brain tumor in 1992; since then, it has rarely been reported intracranially or within the spinal canal. [62]…”

“…[168] Bruch et al . was the first to report ATRT in a 21-year-old female; however, this was only a minimal description of the specific pathological specimen.…”

“…[8] Third, and more recently, a 65-year-old male presented with a primary ATRT involving the lumbar spinal canal, resulting in acute cauda equine syndrome. [6] Notably, the mean post diagnosis survival for these three patients was just 20 months.…”

A Case Report of Atypical Teratoid/Rhabdoid Tumor with Diffuse Leptomeningeal Carcinomatosis and Review of Current Literature

“…In contrast to pediatric tumors, most adult CNS ATRT is supratentorial. In adults, ATRT is most commonly located in the cerebral hemisphere (53%), sella (17%), cerebellum (13%), and spinal cord (7%) [5,6]. On MR imaging, there is typically mixed signal intensity on T1-and T2-weighted images due to necrosis and tumor hemorrhages [7,8].…”