Gliomas in patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Abstract

Ten percent of patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) have intracerebral mass lesions of which the majority are due either to toxoplasmosis or primary central nervous system lymphomas. Three patients with AIDS presented with solitary intracerebral mass lesions and were found by pathologic examination to have gliomas. After surgery, all patients were treated with radiotherapy and procarbazine, comustine, and vincristine multiagent chemotherapy. Median follow-up is 12 months. Occasionally, patients with AIDS and intracerebral mass lesions have primary nonlymphomatous brain tumors, an occurrence not related clearly to underlying immunoincompetence.