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.