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Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry logoLink to Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry
. 1970 Dec;33(6):763–770. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.33.6.763

Extraneural metastases in ependymoma of the cauda equina

Lucien J Rubinstein 1, William J Logan 1,1
PMCID: PMC493589  PMID: 5531896

Abstract

A case of ependymoma of the cauda equina, presumably originating from the filum terminale in a girl aged 17 at the onset of illness, eventually developed remote metastases in the lungs, pleura, and one para-aortic lymph node. This case is compared with three other previously reported examples. The unusual features in the present instance were (1) the total length of the clinical history, amounting to 29 years; (2) the development, six years after the removal of the original spinal tumour, of another ependymomatous mass in the fourth ventricle, interpreted as a rostral metastasis that seeded via the cerebrospinal fluid; and (3) the demonstration of anaplastic cytological changes at the primary site, interpreted as the result of irradiation. The salient aspects of this and the three other reported cases are briefly reviewed, and the pathway of distant dissemination, resulting from venous permeation at the primary site, is emphasized.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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