Histopathological and immunohistochemical profile in anaplastic gangliogliomas

Background: The anaplastic ganglioglioma (AG) is the high-grade counterpart of ganglioglioma, a rare mixed tumor composed of neuronal/ganglion and glial cells. Materials and methods: We describe the histopathology and immunohistochemistry in 7 cases of AG and correlate them with the clinical and radiological features. Results: Our AG patients correspond to 2.5% of the central nervous system tumor patients evaluated in our institution. The mean age at presentation was 25.7 years, with a male predominance. The most common clinical presentation was generalized tonic-clonic seizures (3/7 cases), in correlation with frequent cortical/subcortical location (6/7 cases). Histopathologically, all our cases showed high-grade features in glial (glial fibrillary acid protein-positive) and neuron-ganglion cells (synaptophysin, PGP-9.5, neurofilament, NSE and CD56-positive), as well as moderate cellularity, frequent mitotic figures and a Ki-67 labeling index >5%. All our patients had poor survival. Conclusion: We found that a typical histopathological and immunohistochemical profile is constant and can be useful in early diagnosis of these aggressive neoplasms. (C) 2013 Sociedad Espanola de Neurocirugia. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L. All rights reserved.