Best Post of June '09 - Ependymoblastoma: Dear, Damned, Distracting Diagnosis, Farewell!

The next in our series of "Best Posts of the Month" is from June 18, 2009.

In an article entitled "Ependymoblastoma: Dear, Damned, Distracting Diagnosis, Farewell!" published online in Brain Pathology, authors Alexander R. Judkins (UPenn) and David W. Ellison (St. Jude's, Memphis) adapt a line from Alexander Pope's poem A Farewell to London (1715) for their title. Judkins and Ellison conclude the following: "We believe that ependymoblastoma as a diagnosis is neither precise nor specific and that it is time once and for all to retire this diagnosis from the lexicon of neuropathology." For now, the World Health Organization tumor classification sytem continues to recognize ependymoblastoma as a distinct nosologic entity. These neoplasms are often large, supratentorial, and usually connect to the ventricles. Although there is no definitive feature of ependymoblastoma, the ependymoblastomatous rosette is a histologic characteristic that has been used in making the diagnosis. A photomicrograph of such a rosette from the Judkins & Ellison article is shown. In this picture, epithelial membrane antigen (EMA) immunohistochemistry highlights the limiting lumenal membrane of rossette. (Update: Although published online in December '08, I have yet to see this article published in the print version of Brain Pathology.)