The lipid-rich epithelioid glioblastoma.

Abstract

The authors add to the literature an account of four aggressive glial neoplasms characterized by diffuse cytoplasmic lipidization and a cohesive architectural disposition in epithelioid nests and sheets. These neoplasms arose in the cerebral hemispheres of adults and tended to a circumscribed neuroradiologic presentation that in two instances prompted an unrewarding preoperative search for an extracranial primary. One represented recurrent disease in a patient being followed for a biopsy-proven low-grade astrocytoma. Three cases were collected by way of consultation from pathologists uncertain as to their primary versus metastatic derivation. The apparent expression of cytokeratins and epithelial membrane antigen further conspired to obscure the glial lineage of these peculiar neoplasms, which are best regarded as tumors of the astrocytic series.