Psychotic Features as Initial Presentation of Intracranial Epidermoid of Suprasellar Origin

Intracranial epidermoids are rare congenital lesions which account for around 1% of all intracranial tumors. They present most commonly in cerebello-pontine angle followed by suprasellar region, along with different intracranial areas. The most common presentation includes headache, cranial nerve deficiets, seizures, raised intracranial pressure. It is extremely uncommon for epidermoid tumors to present with psychiatric symptoms. We present a case of 38 year old female with history of psychosis for 2 years with personality change, disorganised behavior and delusions. An episode of increased sedation and semi-consciousness led to neuroimaging which revealed a large epidermoid tumor of suprasellar region and interpeduncular region. Surgical resection of the epidermoid was done and patient was maintained on drug treatment. Keywords: Epidermoid tumour, Psychosis

Cerebellar Squamous Cell Carcinoma Due to Malignant Transformation of Cerebellopontine Angle Epidermoid Cyst, Report an Interesting Case and Review the Literature

Malignant transformation of an epidermoid tumour is a rare entity that in almost all patients occurs at the same site of the primary lesion. We report a case of an epidermoid tumour with malignant transformation to squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) at the adjacent site but without any relation to the primary site of the tumour. A 30-year-old patient with a history of cranial surgery and resection of cerebellopontine (CP) angle epidermoid cyst five years ago, presented with a headache, nausea, and vomiting. Physical examination showed no neurological deficit. The brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated a well-defined lesion within left middle cerebellar peduncle with no relation to CP angle cistern (the previous tumour site). It was isointense on T1, isointense on T2 and had a rim enhancement on gadolinium (GD) injection. Via retrosigmoid and transcortical approach, total resection of the tumour was performed. During the surgery, there was no visible relationship between the current lesion and the previously resected lesion site. Histopathology revealed squamous cell carcinoma. The systemic survey to finding a probable origin of the tumour was negative and the patient referred for performing brain radiotherapy. We are reporting a case of malignant transformation of epidermoid cyst separate from primary location. Moreover, malignant transformation can occur years after index surgery even after gross total resection.

Isolated thoracic intramedullary epidermoid cyst - a rare entity

Intramedullary epidermoid cysts of the spinal cord are rare tumours, especially those not associated with spinal dysraphism. Around 60 cases have been reported in the literature. Of these, only 10 cases have had magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies. Here, we report a case of isolated intramedullary epidermoid tumour at D2-D3 level. The etiology, pathology, clinical features, MRI characteristics and surgical treatment of such rare intramedullary tumours are discussed.

Synthesis of α-Aminoalkyl Phosphonate Derivatives of Resveratrol as Potential Antitumour Agents

Several α-aminoalkyl phosphonate derivatives of resveratrol were first prepared by partial synthesis from resveratrol. Antitumour activities of the synthesized compounds were determined against a human nasopharyngeal epidermoid tumour cell line KB and a human normal cell line L02 in vitro. The results indicated that these compounds showed good cytotoxic activity against KB but weak cytotoxic activity against L02. Compounds 5c and 5d showed significant cytotoxic activity against KB, with median inhibition concentration (IC50) values of 0.4 μM and 0.9 μM, respectively. On the basis of the biological results, the structure–activity relationship is discussed concisely. The potent antitumour activities shown by 5c and 5d make these resveratrol phosphonate derivatives of great interest for further investigations.