Fine-needle aspiration of metastatic sacrococcygeal myxopapillary ependymoma.

A 45-yr-old white woman with a 24-yr history of sacrococcygeal myxopapillary ependymoma developed a large metastasis of scalp and skull diagnosed as metastatic ependymoma on fine-needle aspiration, based on cytologic features, histologic pattern in cell block fragments, and a positive reaction with the glial fibrillary acidic protein immunoperoxidase study. The fine-needle study obviated the need for biopsy in this case, for which a surgical approach was considered to be inappropriate due to the extent of the process demonstrated by various imaging techniques.