Squash Cytology of a Dural-Based High-Grade Chondrosarcoma May Mimic That of Glioblastoma in the Central Nervous System.

BACKGROUND

Intracranial chondrosarcoma is rare, and most cases occur in the skull base. Intradural chondrosarcoma is even rarer.

CASE

Here, we describe a case of dural chondrosarcoma with a radiation history for nasopharyngeal carcinoma and a radical prostatectomy for prostatic cancer 15 and 8 years earlier, respectively. A 67-year-old man presented with a 3-week memory disturbance and dysarthria. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance images of the brain revealed a dural-based mass in the left temporal area. Under the impression of a glioblastoma, a resection and an intraoperative squash cytology were done. A necrotic dirty background as well as bluish-to-pinkish myxoid stroma were characteristic; the nuclei of highly pleomorphic tumor cells were hyperchromatic to vesicular with an occasional ground-glass appearance. The cytoplasm was of an eosinophilic hyalinized condensed morphology with an occasional granular appearance. Histologically, the lobulated mass was composed of hypercellular lobules of well-differentiated chondrocytes intermixed with anaplastic pleomorphic cells and diagnosed as a conventional grade III chondrosarcoma. These cells were immunoreactive for D2-40, S-100 protein and vimentin. Brain invasion was also found.

CONCLUSION

Albeit rare, dural-based chondrosarcomas should be considered in the differential diagnosis for meningeal tumors, especially in the case of previous radiation therapy.