Spinal cord glioneuronal tumor with "rosetted" neuropil islands and meningeal dissemination: a case report

Distinctive glioneuronal tumors arising within the cerebrum and displaying neuropil-like islands and tumor cells immunoreactive for neuronal and glial antigens have recently been described. We report a similar tumor in the cervico-thoracic region of the spinal cord in a 44-year-old woman that recurred 1 year later with dissemination to the lumbar dura and cauda equina. The tumor was composed of "rosetted" neuropil islands displaying immunoreactivity for synaptophysin, whereas the intervening tumor cells were more fibrillar and immunoreactive for GFAP. The tumor cell nuclei immediately surrounding these neuropil islands were immunoreactive to the newly characterized neuronal marker, anti-Hu. While several cases of neurocytomas have been described in the spinal cord, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of a glioneuronal tumor with "rosetted" neuropil islands to be reported in the spinal cord.