Meningeal relations of primary brain tumors:A histological study

Biopsy specimens from rapidly progressive malignant gliomas with meningeal involvement studied for (1) exfoliated tumor cells in the subarachnoid space outside the gliomatosis, (2) the invasive glioma structure in the meninges and (3) the tumor-meningeal reaction. Desmoplastic changes in the glioma structure and distinct mesenchymal proliferation effectively shared in sealing off the subarachnoid space; no isolated tumor cells were detectable in the neighboring subarachnoid space. This seems to correlate well with the low yields of exfoliated glioma cells in the cerebrospinal fluid from meningeal gliomatosis.