SPONGIOBLASTOMA MULTIFORME

Abstract

Introduction. Clinical records and anatomic findings. General consideration of the anatomic findings. General consideration of the clinical features. Conclusions. INTRODUCTION In July, 1916, under the title of Spongioblastoma with Unusually Rapid Growth Following Decompression,1we published a study of a case which ran an unusual clinical course, and in which we found unusual histologic features. The clinical course was striking because of the acute onset and the rapidity of the development of symptoms which lead rapidly to a fatal termination. In the neoplasm we found the predominant element to be a cell unit similar to the spongioblast, an undifferentiated form of glia cell, and hence we suggested the term spongioblastoma. In that report we recalled that it was Virchow2who, soon after the discovery of neuroglia, ascribed many brain tumors to glia tissue and named them gliomas. In his original description he characterized these new growths as slow-growing