Mixed capillary hemangioblastoma and glioma. A redefinition of the "angioglioma"

Abstract

The histopathologic features of four cases of mixed capillary hemangioblastoma and glioma are described. In three cases, two of which arose in the cerebellum and one in the spinal cord, the hemangioblastic component may have originated from a neoplastic proliferation of the exuberant vascular stroma in a glial tumor. In a fourth case, a cerebellar hemangioblastoma was surrounded by a peripheral rim of atypical neoplastic-looking astrocytes ("reactive glioma"). The controversial concept of the "angioglioma" is reviewed, and it is proposed that the term be used to designate only true mixed tumors of glial and vascular tissue origin whose histologic features conform to the examples described in this report.