J Korean Neurosurg Soc.  2014 Jan;55(1):40-42. 10.3340/jkns.2014.55.1.40.

Two Cystic Cavernous Angiomas after Radiotherapy for Atypical Meningioma in Adult Woman : Case Report and Literature Review

• Ruggeri AG
• Donnarumma P
• Pichierri
• Delfini R

• KMID: 2191039
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3340/jkns.2014.55.1.40

Abstract

A correlation between radiation therapy and cavernoma has been suspected since 1994. Since then, only a few cases of radio-induced cavernomas have been reported in the literature (85 patients). Most of them were children, and the most frequent original tumour had been medulloblastoma. The authors report a case of two cystic cavernous angiomas after radiation therapy for atypical meningioma in adult woman. This is the first case of cavernous angioma after radiotherapy for low grade meningioma. A 39-year-old, Latin american woman was operated on for a frontal atypical meningioma with intradiploic component and adjuvant radiotherapy was delivered (6000 cGy local brain irradiation, fractionated over 6 weeks). Follow-up MR imaging showed no recurrences of the tumour and no other lesions. Ten years later, at the age of 49, she consulted for progressive drug-resistant headache. MR imaging revealed two new well defined areas of different signal intensity at the surface of each frontal pole. Both lesions were surgically removed; the histopathological diagnosis was cavernous angioma. This is the first case of cavernous angioma after radiation therapy for atypical meningioma : it confirms the development of these lesions after standard radiation therapy also in patients previously affected by non-malignant tumours.

Keyword

Cavernoma; Cavernous angioma; Cavernoma post-radiotherapy; Radiation therapy; Cystic cavernoma

MeSH Terms

Adult*
Brain
Child
Diagnosis
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Headache
Hemangioma, Cavernous*
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Medulloblastoma
Meningioma*
Radiotherapy*
Radiotherapy, Adjuvant
Recurrence

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Atypical menigioma. Axial T1-weighted MRI.

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  Fig. 2 Atypical menigioma. Histological examination.

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  Fig. 3 Cystic cavernous angiomas. Axial gadolinium enhanced T1-weighted MRI.

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  Fig. 4 Cystic cavernous angiomas. Axial GRE T2-weighted MRI.

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  Fig. 5 Cystic cavernous angiomas. Histological examination.

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