Neurocytoma of spinal cord

Abstract

We report a case of spinal cord neurocytoma in a 67-year-old man who had experienced a progressive numbness of the left foot during the previous 4 years. Magnetic resonance imaging showed a well-defined intramedullary tumor located at the T10-T11 level. The pathological examination revealed histological characteristics described in neurocytomas. The tumor cells showed a uniform small nucleus and clear or slightly eosinophilic cytoplasm with frequent perinuclear halos, resembling the picture of oligodendroglioma. Some tumor cells exhibited mature ganglion cell appearance. Electron microscopy showed cells with microtubules and dense-core vesicles in their cytoplasm and cytoplasmic process. Immunohistochemically, the majority of tumor cells expressed synaptophysin and neuron-specific enolase. We conclude that this tumor is an exceptional case of neurocytoma located in the spinal cord, and consider that the term neurocytoma can be applied to tumors with neuronal differentiation intermediate between neuroblastoma and ganglioneuroma, even if arising in CNS outside of the intracranial ventricular system.

Ganglioneurocytoma of the spinal cord: report of a case and review of literature

“…Neurocytoma is an uncommon tumor; exceptional cases have been reported in spinal cord [1,3,5,[7][8][9][10][11][12]. Spinal Neurocytoma has clinical and pathological similarities to some of these tumors, namely, oligodendroglioma and ependymoma, and probably it has been frequently misdiagnosed in the past.…”

“…Extraventricular neurocytomas (EVNs) have been reported at various sites including cerebral hemispheres, thalamus, cerebellum, pons and rare examples in spinal cord [8]. Nevertheless, it has been reported that ganglion cell differentiation is present in 66% of cases of EVNs [2], to our knowledge in only two cases [1,3] such differentiation has been observed in spinal cord.…”

Cerebellar Extraventricular Neurocytoma With Spinal Seeding

“…He described a neuronal tumor with pathological features distinct from cerebral neuroblastomas, occurring in lateral and third ventricles, and histologically mimicking oligodendrogliomas. Subsequently, tumors mimicking neurocytomas but occurring within the cerebral hemispheres (cerebral neurocytomas) 14 , or the spinal cord 10,11,[15][16][17] were documented. The term "extraventricular neurocytoma" is now applied to neoplasms that share histological features with the neurocytomas but arise outside the ventricular system 18 .…”

Neuronal and Mixed Neuronal-Glial Tumors of the Central Nervous System

“…The term central neurocytoma should be restricted to neoplasms located within the intracerebral ventricles. Tumors similar to central neurocytomas but occurring within the cerebral hemispheres ("cerebral neurocytomas") or the spinal cord (35,36,37) have subsequently been mentioned and described as "extraventricular neurocytoma" these tumours are now given to neoplasms that arise within the CNS parenchyma and have histological features with the more common central neurocytomas but exhibit a wider morphological spectrum. Neurocytic differentiation has been reported in an increasing number o f t u m o r s w i t h s p e c i f i c m o r p h o l o g i c a l characteristics, some of these have been categorized as new entities, such as cerebellar liponeurocytomas, papillary glioneuronal tumors, or their variants (38,39,40).…”