Differential diagnosis of a gliomatosis cerebri responsive to chemotherapy

Gliomatosis cerebri is a rare neoplasm of the glial cells with a poor prognosis, 52% of the patients die within one year of onset. Nor has any therapy proven to be successful neither exists a generally accepted therapeutical procedure. We report the case of a 40 y old female being admitted to our hospital in 08/95 because of on epileptic seizure. The diagnosis of gliomatosis cerebri (differential diagnosis: astrocytoma) was made on the basis of MRI and histopathological findings. Cytostatic treatment employing ACNU (1st day: 90 mg/m(2) = 166 mg/d) and VM26 (1st to 3rd day: 60 mg/m(2) = 111 mg/d), administered at intervals of six to eight weeks over two years (15 sessions), proved to reduce the size of the gliomatosis (controlled by MRI). Our patient is still asymptomatic.