Affiliation:
1. Department of Pathology Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Chicago Illinois USA
2. Department of Pathology University of Maryland School of Medicine Baltimore Maryland USA
3. Department of Pathology Lurie Children's Hospital Chicago Illinois USA
Abstract
AbstractEmbryonal and pineal tumours represent a diverse group of central nervous system (CNS) neoplasms. While many of the small round blue cell tumours that make up the embryonal neoplasms share similar histologic qualities, there are several morphologic and cytologic characteristics that are useful in distinguishing different tumour types. Similarly, pineal parenchymal tumours represent clinically diverse tumours, ranging from benign to overtly malignant. The most recent iteration of the World Health Organization Classification of CNS Tumours expanded greatly on the significance of molecular alterations in brain tumour diagnostics. In this article, we summarize the salient cytologic and histologic features of CNS embryonal and pineal tumours, and highlight diagnostically relevant molecular alterations within each tumour type.
Subject
General Medicine,Histology,Pathology and Forensic Medicine