J Korean Neurosurg Soc.  1995 Aug;24(8):857-863.

Immunohistochemical Study of Medullolastomas and Cerebral Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumors

• Lee JI
• Wang KC
• Chi JG
• Cho BK

Abstract

Although it is becoming widely accepted that medulloblastoma and cerebral primitive neuroectodermal tumor(PNET) are identical tumors occurring at different locations, there are some controversies in their orgin and pathological classification. As a method of investigating whether the tumors are identical in pathological aspects, immunohistochemical characteristics of medulloblastomas and cerebral PNETs were compared in this study. Also the prognostic significance of the immunohistochemical findings in medulloblastoma patients was analyzed. Clinical features of twenty-seven patients with medulloblastoma and eleven patients with cerebral PNET were reviewed, excluding tumors with significant cellular differentiation such as ependymoblastoma, pineoblastoma and neuroblastoma. The presence of glial fibrillary acidic protein(GFAP), neurofilament(NF), S-100 protein, vimentin, synaptophysin, and epithelial membrane antigen(EMA) was examined with immunohistochemical method and the differences of the results between the two tumors were statistically analyzed. The positive rates of NF and synaptophysin were significantly higher in medulloblastomas(p=0.006 and 0.003, respectively) and so was the positive rate of vimentin in cerebral PNET's(p=0.004). S-100 protein showed a higher positive rate in cerebral PNETs althought it was not statistically significant. Univariate and multivariate analyses did not show any significant correlation between the duration of survival and the presence of cellular antigens.

Keyword

Medulloblastoma; Primitive neuroectodermal tumor; Immunohistochemistry; Survival

MeSH Terms

Classification
Humans
Immunohistochemistry
Medulloblastoma
Membranes
Multivariate Analysis
Neural Plate
Neuroblastoma
Neuroectodermal Tumors, Primitive*
Pinealoma
S100 Proteins
Synaptophysin
Vimentin
S100 Proteins
Synaptophysin
Vimentin