Justification for a Cytogenetic Scheme of Embryonal Central Neuroepithelial Tumors

Abstract

The concept of central neuroepithelial tumors of primitive or perhaps, as one should rather call them, embryonal type requires no apologia. The existence of this category of neoplasms has long been recognized, even in the days when the main emphasis was on the view that most tumors of the glioma group presumably arose from already differentiated cells which underwent dedifferentiation in the course of growth. Thusqillis (1960) singled out the cerebellar medulloblastomas from other glioma types as “truly embryonic tumours arising from still immature neural tissues during foetal life or early childhood.” There Is widespread agreement that, followed by the retinoblastoma, the cerebellar medulloblastoma is by far the commonest of the central nervous system (CNS) neoplasms in that category. As a result, it is the one whose histogenesis and differentiation potential have been most extensively investigated and discussed.