Histopathology of Carcinoma of the Cerebral Meninges

It is generally admitted that carcinoma of the nervous system is always a secondary process, spreading either from neighboring affected regions, or reaching the brain and its meninges by way of metastases. There have been recorded a few cases of so-called primary carcinoma of the brain (Gedge-Latham,1Rustizky,2Russel,3and Coats4), but these cases proved to be, on closer examination, some other varieties of tumors, like glioma, endothelioma or sarcoma. The statistics by Buchholz,5Gallawardin and Varay,6Kaufman,7Krasting,8Fischer and De Foy9not only demonstrate the relative frequency of metastatic growth of cancer in the brain, but also that it may originate from any organ in the body, no matter how remote. Thus, it may come even from the prostate, rectum or ovaries, and make its first appearance long after the original growth has been removed. In Guttman's10case