A case of cervical lymph node metastasis resulting from glioblastoma multiforme

Abstract

This article presents a rare case of metastatic glioblastoma multiforme (GM) to the cervical lymph node. In spite of very aggressive tumor behavior, extracranial metastasis from intra-cerebral GM is rare. Only a few cases are reported in the world literature. This infrequent extracranial metastasis may be due to the fact that patients do not live long enough to manifest metastases or result from the fact that brain tissue has some structural differences from other tissues in the body. This tumor can be easily mistaken for other anaplastic tumors like malignant melanoma, malignant lymphoma, or anaplastic carcinoma. Positive glial fibrillary acidic (GFA) protein stain (an immunoperoxidase stain) of this metastatic tumor can eliminate all other time consuming, expensive, and exhausting procedures for the patient.