Neuro Oncology Flashcards
Most common location for metastatic brain tumors
Gray/white matter junction
Most common mets to brain:
Adult (4)
Pediatric (3)
Adult
- Lung
- breast
- renal
- melanoma
Pediatric
- leukemia
- germ cell tumors
- neuroblastoma
Most common malignant tumor in brain (1) and two additional specifications (2)
Most common malignant tumor in brain: Lung Cancer
Specifications:
- NSCLC is most common (80% of lung CA)
- SCLC has higher incidence of CNS mets, but is a less common cancer overall
Brain Mets most likely to bleed
My Cranium Really Bleeds Terribly
- Melanoma
- Choriocarcinoma
- Renal cell Carcinoma
- Bronchogenic (lung)
- Thyroid
Treatment for Metastatic Brain tumors:
Single Met (3)
Multiple Brain mets (2)
Single Brain Met
- Surgery followed by RT
- Stereotactic raiosurgery
- Whole brain radiation therapy
Multiple Brain metastesis
- Whole brain radiotherapy
- stereotactic radiosurgery to multiple lesions
Variant of whole brain radiation therapy used to decrease cognitive decline (1), and caveat (1)
Hippocampal avoidance WBRT + memantine
No defined role for up-front systemic therapy
Leptomeningeal Metastases
1. other names (3)
- relative prognosis to other mets
- Presenting sign / symptoms
- other names
- Leptomeningeal carcinomatosis
- carcinomatous meningitis
- leptomeningeal disease
- much poorer prognosis compared to other brain mets
- Presenting sings
- Symptoms of lesions “all over”
- Multiple cranial neuropathies
- asymmetric radiculopathies
- sx of increased ICP
- Symptoms of lesions “all over”
Lemtomeningeal Metastesis: Workup
Imaging
CSF
- MRI Brain and Spine (i.e. whole neuroaxis)
- CSF
- Cytology
- Pathology review
- Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA)
Leptomeningeal metastesis:
Treatment
- Hospice
- Radiotherapy
- Focal vs WBRT vs Craniospinal irradiation (CSI)
- systemic treatment
- intrathecal treatment
Treatment for Metastatic cord compression
High-dose steroids
Surgery > RT (better than Radiotherapy alone)
Integrated diagnosis of infiltrating Gliomas
- What is this?
- MRI features
- how would you treat it (3 + if progression)?
Glioblastoma (IDHwt)
MRI features
- heterogenously enhancing lesion
Treatment:
- maximal surgical resection
- Daily temozolomide + RT (no stereotactic radiosurgery)
- Temozolomide cycles (5/28 day) +/- tumor-treating fields (TTF)
- (if progression) consider one of the following
- bevacizumab (anit-VEGF ab)
- CCNU (nitrosurea)
- TTF
- What is this?
- MRI features (2)
- how would you treat it?
- Astrocytoma IDH-mutated
- increased T2/FLAIR; rarely enhances
- Treatment:
1.
- What is this?
- Pathology features (2)
Glioblastoma (IDH WT)
- Endothelial proliferation
- pseudopalisading necrosis
Difference and significance between two types of GBM
- Wild type (worse prognosis)
- IDH mutated (better prognosis)
Oligodendroglioma:
- Grade
- WHO requirement for diagnosis
- Buzz-word clinical feature
- Treatment (3)
- Grade 2 or 3
- IDH mutation AND 1p19q co-deletion
- highest incidence of seizures among infiltrating glioma
- Treatment:
- Responsive to radiation
- Procarbazine / CCU / Vincristine (PCV)
- Temozolomide (TMZ)
Pilocytic Astrocytoma
- Grade
- Onset
- Imaging
- Pathology (4)
- locations (3)
- Treatment
- Grade 1
- Onset: childhood (juvenile pilocytic astrocytoma or JPA)
- Imaging
- enhancing
- well circumscribed
- Pathology
- circumscribed
- rosenthal fibers
- esoinophilic granular bodies
- Highly vascular
- Locations
- COmmon in posterior fossa
- Can be found elsewhere
- If in optic nerve, think NF1
- Treatment: resection
Ependymal Tumors
- Typically arise from ____
- Age group
- Imaging (3)
- Pathology (3)
- Key clinical feature
- Treatment (2)
- Typically arise from lining of ventricals (most commonly posterior fossa)
- Typically in the young
- Imaging:
- relatively circumscribed
- variable enhancement
- often cystic
- Pathology
- Perivascular pseudorosettes (around blood vessels)
- ependymal rosettes (around central lumen)
- + GFAP
- Clinical features
- spread through CSF > make sure to evaluate spine and CSF
- Treatment
- Complete surgical resection
- +/- RT (focal vs craniospinal)
What are these and what are they characteristic of?
Ependymal tumors
What is this a picture of?
Dysembryoplatic neuroepithelial tumor (DNET)
GFAP + is a marker for…
Astrocytic or Ependymal tumors
Tumor markers for Lymphoma
CD20
BCL6
EBV
Embyonal Tumors:
- Histopathology Buzzword
- Examples (6)
- Histopathology Buzzword: “small round blue cell tumor”
- Examples
- Medulloblastoma
- Embyonal tumor with multilayered rosettes
- AT/RT
- CNS neuroblastoma
- CNS ganglioneuroblastoma
- medulloepithelioma
Medulloblastoma
- Grade
- tumor type
- location
- age group
- _____ is associated with poorer prognosis
- pathology (2)
- Subtypes (4)
- Grade IV
- most common embryonal tumor
- Typically cerebellar (not in medulla)
- Age group: children
- if < 3 years = pooer prognositic (also more likely to suffer long-term neurologic sequelae in survivors)
- Pathology:
- dense round blue cells
- neuroblastic rosettes
- Subtypes:
- WNT
- SHH
- C
- D
- What is this?
- What is the workup?
- How is it treated (3)
- (recurrent) medulloblastoma
- MRI Brain and spine
- LP (disseminates via CSF) - if safe to do so
- Treatment
- surgery (Goal = gross total resection)
- Craniospinal irradiatin (CSI)
- Chemotherapy: CCNU / Cisplatin / vincristine (packer regimen)
- What is this?
- MRI features
- workup
- treatment (3)
- CNS lymphoma
- MRI features
- Diffusely enhancing
- restricted diffusion (particularly if in a non-vascular distribution)
- may cross corpus callosum
- Treatment:
- high dose methotrexate (HD-MTX)
- (rarely) WBRT
- NO surgery
CNS lymphoma
- What type?
- types (2)
- patient population
- important diagnostic note
- Typically B-cell
- types
- primary
- assocaited with systemic lymphoma
- often in immunocompromised population (HIV, post-transplant, elderly)
- steroids are lymphocytic: ideally give after biopsy
Tumors that tend to cross corpus callosum
- CNS lymphoma
- high-grade gliomas
CNS lymphoma
- What is this?
- Common mutation
- Gross histologic finding
- Adamantinous craniopharyngioma
- CTTNB1
- cystic “motor oil”
Pituitary tumors and key points for each
- A (3)
- B (2)
- C (3)
- Pituitary Adenoma
- Benign, micro/macroadenoma
- may present with hormonal abnormalities (adenoma)
- Bitemporal hemianopsia
- Pituitary Carcinoma
- Can spread outside of CNS
- Rare
- Craniopharyngioma
- Arise from rathke’s cyst remnants
- Ademantinous: CTNNB1 muation, cystic / “motor oil” appearance
- Papillary: BRAF mutation, solid
What is this?
Pituitary Adenoma
Treatment: Pituitary tumors
- Surgery
- Radiotherapy
- hormonal therapy
- What is this?
- epidemiology notes (3)
- origin
- Grades and subtypes
- pathology
- imaging
- treatment
- Meningioma
- Epidemiology
- 33% of primary CNS tumors
- Women > Men
- increase markedly with age
- arise from arachnoid cells in Dura
- Grades
- I (most common; 90%)
- II (atypical menigioma)
- III (anaplatic / malignant meningioma)
- Pathology: various subtypes, require molecular subtyping (unlikely to be tested)
- Imaging: homogenous enhancement with dural tail
- Treatment: resection + radiation (stereotactic > fractionated)
Pineal tumor most sensitive to radiation / chemotherapy
Germinoma
(think, radiation kills Germs)
Pineoblastoma
- Grade
- pathology buzz word
- clinical notes (2)
- Pineoblatsoma
- Grade IV
- Pathology: +/- homer-write rosettes
- Clinical notes:
- Can spread through CSF
- can occur with bilateral retinoblastoma: if so think (trilateral retinoblatoma, Rb gene mutation)
Pineocytoma
- Grade
- Pathology buzz words (2)
- Pineocytoma
- Grade I
- Pathology = neuronal markers
- synaptophysin
- neuron-specific enolase (NSE)
What is this?
Either Pineocytoma (Grade I) or Pineoblastoma (Grade IV)
Germ - cell tumors
- Location (2)
- Category 1
- Category 2
- spread via…
- Biomarkers (4)
- treatment
- Typically a pituitary tumor, but can occur elsewhere in CNS and extra-CNS
- Germ cell tumor (sensitive to RT and chemo)
- Non-germinomatous germ cell tumor
- Teratoma
- yolk sac tumor
- embryonal carcinoma
- choriocarcinoma
- Sprea via local extension or through CSF
- Biomarkers
- AFP
- BhCG
- placental alkaline phosphatase
- carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)
- Treatment
- biopsy vs surgery
- RT
- Chemo
3 main categories of peripheral nerve tumors
- Schwannoma
- neurofibroma
- malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor
Schwannomas
- Grade
- Location (2)
- if ____ think ___
- histopathology classification
- Grade I
- Location
- Peripheral nervous system (including spinal nerve roots)
- cranial nerves
- if bilateral acoustic schwannoma think NF2
- Histopathology classification
- Antoni A (closely packed)
- Antoni B (loosely packed)
Neurofibroma
- Grade
- Location and association
- types
- pathology (2)
- clinical note
- Grade I
- Peripheral nerves (associated with NF 1)
- types
- single nodule
- plexiform
- Pathology
- schwann cell
- perineurial-like cell
- may transform into malignant peripheral nerve-sheath tumor
Malignant Peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNST)
- Grade
- Association
- Most common location
- Pathology (2)
- Grade II, III, or IV
- assocaited with NF 1 (50%) but also sporadic
- most commonly in sciatic nerve (think about if an NF patient presents wtih sciatica)
- Pathology
- sarcoma-like
- +/- S100
Neurofibromatosis Type I
- Gene mutation
- Chromosome
- Inheritance
- Diagnostic criteria
- Neurofibromin Gene (GTPase activator)
- Chromosome 17
- Autosomal Dominant
- Diagnostic criteria (need 2+)
- cafe au lait spots (>/= 6)
- lisch nodules (>/= 2)
- axillary frecklinkg
- neurofibromas (>/= 2 or 1 plexiform)
- optic glioma
- bony dysplasia
- 1st degree relative with NF1
Neurofibromatosis Type 2
- Gene
- chromosome
- inheritance
- assiciated tumors (4)
- Merlin gene (cytoskeleton protein)
- Chromosome 22
- Autosomal Dominant
- assoicated tumors
- bilareal acoustic schwannomas
- neurofibromas
- meningiomas
- ependymomas
Most common tumors prsenting with Seizures
- DNET
- Astrocytoma
- Ganglioglioma
- Oligodendroglioma
Tuberous Sclerosis
- Assocciated mutations
- inheritance
- Associated tumors
- Treatment
- TSC 1 and TSC 2 (mTOR pathway)
- Autosomal Dominant
- associated tumors
- CNS “tubers”
- SEGA
- renal hamartomas
- cardiac rhabdomyomas
- Everolimus (mTOR inhibitor)
Von Hippel-Lindau Syndrome
- Mutation and associated pathogenesis
- Tumors
- Most notable
- location
- Clinical note
- Others (5)
- Most notable
- Mutation in VHL gene > increased HIF1 > incrased angiogenesis
- Tumors
- Most notable = CNS hemangioblatoma (grade I)
- Infratentorial / spinal
- Saltatory growth pattern (grows…stops…grows…)
- Others
- Endolymphatic sac tumors (ELST) - associated with decreased hearing
- renal cell carcinoma
- Pheochromocytoma
- retinal angiomas
- pancreatic cysts
- Most notable = CNS hemangioblatoma (grade I)
Cowden Syndrome
- Mutation and pathogenesis
- biggest buzz-word tumor
- other associated tumors
- Non-tumor features
- Mutation in PTEN > phosphatylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway
-
Lhermitte-duclos
- Dysplastic gangiocytoma of cerebellum (grade I)
- “tiger stripe” appearance
- Other associated tumors
- breat cancer
- follicular thyroid cancer
- endometrial cancer
- Non-tumor features
- macrocephaly
- intestinal hamartomas
- trichilemmomas of skin