The designation of “astrocytoma” includes a small subset of tumors with astrocytic differentiation that are better circumscribed than the diffuse astrocytomas. These tumors arise in the pediatric population most frequently, but are also occasionally noted in adults and include the…
Introduction and Brief Historical Overview The infiltrative, or “diffuse,” gliomas include astrocytomas and oligodendrogliomas. Taken together, these are the most frequent primary neoplasms of the central nervous system (CNS) parenchyma. Bailey and Cushing first classified these neoplasms by their cellular…
Human disease is increasingly appreciated to have an underlying genetic basis. This is particularly true of neurologic disease, where genetic variants have been shown to increase risk or directly cause schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, and neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer disease,…
Introduction In 1895, German physicist Wilhelm Konrad Röntgen (1845–1923) published his groundbreaking research on a newly appreciated and mysterious form of electromagnetic radiation, which he designated the “x-ray.” To his amazement, these x-rays could penetrate the body's soft tissues and…
Intraoperative consultation is unquestionably one of the most important and often most challenging tasks for the surgical pathologist. Of all the organ systems, neurosurgical specimens appear to be particularly problematic. Each surgical specimen and clinical setting offers its own unique…
Introduction The practice of surgical neuropathology can be challenging for the generalist and specialist alike. Much of the difficulty results from the intrinsic complexity of the human central nervous system (CNS), an organ that is unrivaled in regional variation and…
CNS Tumor Classification Schemes and Additional “Neuropathology Patterns” The first comprehensive classification of nervous system tumors, formulated by Percival Bailey and Harvey Cushing in 1926, was founded on presumed parallels between embryologic and neoplastic cells. In large part, this histogenetic…