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JMD 2004, Vol. 6, No. 1
Copyright © 2004 American Society for Investigative Pathology & Association for Molecular Pathology

Consultations in Molecular Diagnostics

Molecular Diagnosis of Metastasizing Oligodendroglioma

A Case Report

Min Wang^*, Kathleen M. Murphy^*, Piotr Kulesza^*, Kimmo J. Hatanpaa, Alessandro Olivi, Anthony Tufaro, Yener Erozan^*, William H. Westra^*, Peter C. Burger^*¶ and Karin D. Berg^*¶

From the Departments of Pathology, * Neurosurgery, Surgery, and Oncology, ^¶ The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland; and the Department of Pathology, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas

Abstract

We report the case of a suspicious parotid mass in which molecular determination of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) of chromosome arms 1p and 19q in combination with cytologic and immunohistochemical analysis defined the tumor to be metastatic oligodendroglioma. The patient was a 41-year-old woman who developed a World Health Organization grade II oligodendroglioma in her right frontal lobe at age 32, for which no adjuvant chemo- or radiotherapy was administered. Five years following this diagnosis, radiological assessment revealed a 10-centimeter mass in the tumor bed, suspicious for a recurrence. Resection of this lesion revealed an anaplastic oligodendroglioma (grade III) and adjuvant radiotherapy was given. Eleven months after this surgery the patient presented with a 5.5-cm subcutaneous, non-mobile, non-tender mass in the region of the right parotid gland. Fine needle aspiration (FNA) yielded highly cellular material, morphologically and immunohistochemically suspicious for oligodendroglioma. Molecular analysis of microsatellite loci residing on chromosome arms 1p and 19q was performed using DNA extracted from the patient’s recurrent brain oliogdendroglioma and the FNA specimen. This analysis revealed evidence of LOH at all eight of the microsatellite loci tested. The combination of cytologic and molecular findings defined the extracranial tumor to be metastatic oligodendroglioma.