CASE REPORT article
Front. Med.
Sec. Pathology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1641160
The value of cerebrospinal fluid cytology in the diagnosis of atypical medulloblastoma: a case report and review of the literature
Provisionally accepted
- Guangdong Sanjiu Brain Hospital, GuangZhou, China
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Medulloblastoma is a highly aggressive malignant tumor of the central nervous system in children, and early diagnosis is crucial for improving prognosis. In this article, we report a case of an 8-year-old male patient who presented with intermittent headache and vomiting, and whose cranial MRI showed subcerebellar tonsillar herniation with hydrocephalus, but lacked the typical features of tumor enhancement and was misdiagnosed as meningitis. After obtaining a cerebrospinal fluid specimen via lumbar puncture, tumor cells were found in it, which led to the diagnosis of medulloblastoma. This study provides a practical model for the differential diagnosis of atypical medulloblastoma on imaging and highlights the irreplaceable role of cerebrospinal fluid cytology in the identification of tumor metastasis.
Keywords: Medulloblastoma, cerebrospinal fluid cytology, Atypical Imaging, LeptomeningealDissemination, diagnostic value
Received: 04 Jun 2025; Accepted: 02 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xu, Na, Huang, Ye and Lai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Shaoqiang Xu, 15989148592@126.com
Keyuan Lai, laikeyuan12@outlook.com
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