Metastasising gliomas in young subjects

ALTHOUGH formation of metastases via the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is well recognised with medulloblastomas, this mode of spread is rare amongst other intracranial tumours. Metastasis outside the central nervous system was, for many years, thought never to occur (Bailey and Cushing, 1926). Several cases have now been described and were reviewed by Glasauer and Yuan (1963); we are presenting a further series of five gliomas spreading through the cerebrospinal fluid, with distant metastases in two instances, in an attempt to define their histological features and other circumstances that favour this mode of spread.