Gliofibroma: Report of Four Cases and Review of the Literature

Recurrence of cervical intramedullary gliofibroma

INTRODUCTION

Gliofibroma is a rare tumor that develops in the brain and spinal cord. Due to the rarity of its nature, its pathophysiology and appropriate treatment remain elusive. We report a case of intramedullary spinal cord gliofibroma that was surgically treated multiple times. This report is of great significance because this is the first case of recurrence of this tumor.

CASE PRESENTATION

A 32-year-old woman complained of gait disturbance and was referred to our institution. At the age of 13 years, she was diagnosed with intramedullary gliofibroma and underwent gross total resection (GTR) in another hospital. Based on imaging findings, tumor recurrence was suspected at the level of cervical spinal cord, and surgery was performed. However, the resection volume was limited to 50% because the boundary between the tumor and spinal cord tissue was unclear and intraoperative neuromonitoring alerted paralysis. At 1 year postoperatively, the second surgery was performed to try to resect the residual tumor, but subtotal resection was achieved at most. At 2 years after the final surgery, no tumor recurrence was observed, and neurologic function was maintained to gait with cane.

DISCUSSION

Although complete resection is desirable for this rare tumor at the initial surgery, there is a possibility to recur even after GTR with long-term follow-up. During surgical treatment for tumor recurrence, fair adhesion to the spinal cord is expected, and reoperation and/or adjuvant therapy might be considered in the future if the tumor regrows and triggers neurological deterioration.

Successful Treatment of a Massive Desmoplastic Fibroma of the Ilium without Surgery: A Case Report with Long-Term Follow-Up

Desmoplastic fibroma of the bone (DFB) is a notably rare, lytic, locally aggressive but nonmetastatic, primary benign bone tumor in patients less than 30 years old. As the recommended primary treatment for DFB, wide resection is preferred to curettage from the perspective of recurrence but wide resection of DFB in the pelvis such as in the acetabulum could result in greater functional loss, suggesting the need for conservative treatments. However, there is no report on long-term follow-up following conservative treatment for DFB. The present case involved a 21-year-old woman with right hip pain. Radiological evaluation revealed a massive lesion throughout the right ilium and acetabulum with partial osteolysis, cortical destruction, marginal sclerosis, slight pseudotrabeculation, and bone expansion. Open biopsy from the ilium showed the proliferation of spindle cells in an abundant collagenous matrix without atypia and mitosis, suggesting a diagnosis of DFB. Conservative treatment was selected considering the risk of greater functional loss following wide ilium resection. An evaluation 10 years after follow-up showed a partially sclerotic lesion of the ilium and the absence of pain. The current case demonstrates that conservative therapy may be effective even in some cases of aggressive DFB.

Desmoplastic fibroma of the femur with atypical image findings: A case report

RATIONALE

Desmoplastic fibroma of the bone (DFB) is an extremely rare benign bone tumor, which can occur in any bone at all ages. Herein, we report a case of non-specific imaging findings.

PATIENT CONCERNS

A 25-year-old female patient was consulted in the Armed Police General Hospital (Beijing, China) due to repeated pain in the right thigh lasting over 1 year. Imaging examination revealed a space-occupying lesion in the right femur.

DIAGNOSIS

Desmoplastic fibroma of the femur INTERVENTIONS:: Wide surgical resection OUTCOMES:: At the 1-year follow-up visit, no relapse in the tumor was observed.

LESSONS

In this case report, we described and emphasized the particularity of the case examined and the possible non-specificity of the imaging results of some DFB cases.