Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Case Report
Abstract: BACKGROUND Astroblastoma is a rare neuroepithelial brain tumor of uncertain origin, primarily affecting children and young adults. It accounts for 0.45-2.8% of all neuroglial tumors. Diagnosing astroblastoma is challenging due to its resemblance to other glial neoplasms in both histopathology and imaging. These tumors are typically large, peripheral, and located in the frontoparietal hemispheres, though they can also appear in the cerebellum, brainstem, or hypothalamus. Symptoms include headache, vomiting, nausea, seizures, and altered consciousness. MATERIAL AND METHODS The 33-year-old patient had a progressive dizziness of two weeks. She had no history of trauma, serious medical problems or family history of brain tumors. Physical examinations showed normal vital signs and no focal neurologic deficits. Her brain- MRI revealed a large contrast medium uptake/ lesion parietooccipital at the left side. Due to the clinical and imaging findings, we opted for the tumorresection. The histology showed an astroblastoma. The patient had no neurological deficits. She got a postoperative radiochemotherapy according to Stupp, 8 weeks after the operation. The MRI-Control showed a progress of the resttumor. We followed up at 3 and 6 months. The last MRI showed a stable disease. RESULTS Astroblastoma is an extremely rare tumor that was previously referred to as “neuroepithelial tumors of uncertain origin”. Currently, the WHO classification of CNS tumors categorizes astroblastomas as “other neuroepithelial tumors”. A bimodal age distribution is commonly observed, with most reported cases presenting between the ages of 10 and 30. CONCLUSION Due to the rarity of astroblastoma and the difficulties in diagnosing it at an early stage, there is no established standard treatment. High-grade astroblastomas typically have a poor prognosis, characterized by invasion of surrounding brain regions, high recurrence rates, and rapid progression. In such cases, aggressive treatment and ongoing monitoring are crucial.
Source: Neuro-Oncology
Author: A Fjerza
Institution: Universitätsmedizin Göttingen
Language: English
Subfield: Genetics
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4414800022
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