Metastatic glioblastoma cells use common pathways via blood and lymphatic vessels.

Abstract

Generally, gliomas do not metastasize. Therefore, larger series are not available to investigate the pathways of tumour spread. Here, we present the case of a young man with a glioblastoma multiforme WHO grade IV and distant metastases in several tissues. The glioblastoma multiforme WHO grade IV of a young male patient recurred within a very short time along the surgical resection pathway within the temporalis muscle. After removal of the tumour bulk, the patient developed a distant intracranial tumour lesion around the contralateral ventricular system and a pulmonary tumour. Later on, the patient underwent an operation on a facial lesion representing a local extracranial glioblastoma recurrence and containing metastases within lymph nodes and lymphatic vessels. Our case report indicated a lymphatic pathway of metastasis, which could be demonstrated by our histopathological analysis. We suggest that altered gene expression stimulated by glioblastoma-environment interaction altered the properties of glioblastoma cells, whether caused by a spontaneous genetic shift or induced by factors provided by the extracranial tissue.