Intracranial desmoplastic small-cell tumor. Report of a case.

Abstract

We report a case of desmoplastic small-cell tumor occurring in the CNS in relation to the tentorium in a 24-year-old man. Morphologically, the neoplasm had the typical appearance of small, round tumor cells of primitive appearance growing as well-defined nests separated by abundant desmoplastic stroma. The diagnosis was confirmed through the demonstration of immunoreactivity for keratin, desmin, and neuron-specific enolase and the detection by Southern blot analysis of a unique gene resulting from the fusion of the WT1 gene in chromosome 11 and the EWS gene in chromosome 22. This is the first documented instance of the occurrence of this tumor type at a distance from a mesothelial-lined surface.