Ependymoma

A type of brain tumor derived from the cells that line the cavities within the ventricles of the brain and the central canal of the spinal cord. Because cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) normally flows through the cerebral ventricles and the central canal of the spinal cord, blockage due to an ependymoma can cause build-up of fluid, pressure on the brain, and hydrocephalus with the associated symptoms of headaches, nausea and vomiting. Next to leukemia and lymphoma, brain tumors are the most common type of cancer in children. Ependymomas account for about 10% of childhood brain tumors. About 60% of intracranial ependymomas in children are diagnosed by age 5. Treatment depends upon the tumor's location and metastatic spread. (Ependymomas may metastasize within the central nervous system.) In general, the treatment of an ependymoma is surgical resection. When complete resection is not possible, radiation therapy and/or chemotherapy may be done.

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A glioma derived from relatively undifferentiated ependymal cells, comprising approximately 1–3% of all intracranial neoplasms; ependymomas occur in all age groups and may originate from the lining of any of the ventricles or, more commonly, from the central canal of the spinal cord; histologically, the neoplastic cells tend to be arranged radially about blood vessel s, to which they are attached by means of fibrillary processes.

- myxopapillary e. a slow-growing e. of the filum terminale, occurring most often in young adults, consisting of cuboidal cells in papillary arrangement around a mucinous vascular core.

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ep·en·dy·mo·ma (.)ep-.en-də-'mō-mə n, pl -mas also -ma·ta -mət-ə a glioma arising in or near the ependyma

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n.

a cerebral tumour derived from the glial (non-nervous) cells lining the cavities of the ventricles of the brain (see ependyma). It may obstruct the flow of cerebrospinal fluid, causing a hydrocephalus.

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epen·dy·mo·ma (ə-pen″də-moґmə) a neoplasm composed of differentiated ependymal cells, occurring most often in the posterior cranial fossa in children and in the spinal cord in adults. Most are slow growing and benign, but a few are malignant.