A Craniopharyngioma Associated With Elevated Cerebrospinal Fluid HCG Concentrations Misdiagnosed as a Germinoma

Craniopharyngiomas and germinomas are both rare cranial tumors that most commonly present during childhood or adolescence. Although these tumors have different origins, their clinical and radiological features may be similar. In this article, we report the case of a 35-year female patient with clini...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Weijun Gu, Weizhong Gu, Yulin Gu, Jie Li, Guoqing Yang, Qinghua Guo, Li Zang, Jin Du, Yu Pei, Jianming Ba, Zhaohui Lv, Jingtao Dou, Yiming Mu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-06-01
Series:Frontiers in Neurology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fneur.2018.00449/full
Description
Summary:Craniopharyngiomas and germinomas are both rare cranial tumors that most commonly present during childhood or adolescence. Although these tumors have different origins, their clinical and radiological features may be similar. In this article, we report the case of a 35-year female patient with clinical and radiological findings and increased human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) levels in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that were consistent with a germinoma. However, pathological analysis revealed a craniopharyngioma. This case report indicates that HCG, which is regarded as a specific tumor marker for germinomas in the differential diagnosis of intracranial lesions, is also detectable in other kinds of suprasellar tumors, such as craniopharyngiomas.
ISSN:1664-2295