Palisades in primary cerebral neuroblastoma simulating so-called polar spongioblastoma. A light and electron microscopical study of an adult case.

A frontal lobe neoplasm in a 25-year-old Caucasian man showed the typical histological pattern of a "polar spongioblastoma." Immunoperoxidase staining for glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) was negative while silver stains in paraffin-embedded tissue, and electron microscopy displayed neoplastic cells with neuritic processes. Ultrastructurally there were microtubules, synapses and dense-core neurosecretory granules, all features of a neuroblastic neoplasm. It is suggested that this new growth with its polar spongioblastic appearance is, in fact, a moderately malignant primary cerebral neuroblastoma.