Brain & Spine Tumor Care

Brain gliomas may spread via the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to the spinal axis. Spinal seeding is often observed in patients with glioblastoma (up to 20% of the cases showing a CSF positivity) or anaplastic astrocytoma, whereas it is rare in patients with oligodendroglioma, both low grade and anaplastic.

The diffuse tumor spreading in the spinal subarachnoid spaces is more often an incidental finding on magnetic resonance (MRI) of the spine. On the other hand, symptomatic spinal cord localizations are rare.

Symptoms of metastatic spinal localization occur in almost all reported cases after the treatment of brain glioma, even many years after diagnosis. On the other hand, onset with symptoms of a spinal metastasis is a very rare event in patients with unknown brain glioma.