From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ependymoma are tumors arising from the inner lining of the cerebral ventricles (= intracranial) and the remnants of the central canal in the spinal cord. Intracranial ependymomas are usually seen in children. Spinal ependymomas arise more often in adults. The common location of intracranial ependymomas is the fourth ventricle.

Syringomyelia can be caused by an ependymona. Ependymomas are also seen with Neurofibromatosis Type II.

Ependymomas make up about 5% of adult intracranial gliomas and up to 10% of childhood tumors of the central nervous system (CNS). Their occurrence seems to peak at age 5 years and then again at age 34. About 85% of ependymomas are benign. They develop from cells that line both the hollow cavities of the brain and the canal containing the spinal cord, but they usually arise from the floor of the fourth ventricle, situated in the lower back portion of the brain, where they may produce headache, nausea and vomiting by obstructing the flow of cerebrospinal fluid. This obstruction may also cause hydrocephalus (water on the brain). Usually ependymomas are localized and slowly growing, low-grade tumors. Though some are of a more anaplastic and malignant type, most of them are not anaplastic. For this reason, well-differentiated ependymomas are usually treated with radiation therapy only. For other ependymomas, total surgical removal is the preferred treatment and those that cannot be totally removed also require radiation therapy. The malignant (anaplastic) varieties of this tumor, malignant ependymoma and the ependymoblastoma, are treated similarly to medulloblastoma but the prognosis is much less favorable. Malignant ependymomas may be treated with a combination of radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Ependymoblastomas, which occur in infants and children younger than 5 years of age, may spread through the cerebrospinal fluid and usually require radiation therapy. The subependymoma, a variant of the ependymoma, is apt to arise in the fourth ventricle but may occur in the septum pellucidum and the cervical spinal cord. It usually affects people over 40 years of age and more often affects men than women. The subependymal giant-cell astrocytoma, also called giant-cell glioma, is typically associated with tuberous sclerosis but can occur independent of that condition. Arising in the walls of the lateral ventricles over the basal ganglia, this tumor tends to cause obstruction when it becomes large. It is a sharply defined tumor, however, and generally has a very benign course.

• CINN
• eMedicine med/700
• Illustration
• AdultEpendy - Adult Ependymoma Support Group
• EpendyParents - Ependymoma Parents Support Group
• Pediatric Brain Tumor Support Group
• Brain Tumor Life - brain tumor awareness products
• Ependymoma Information from ABTA (PDF)
• CNS121 Protocol - A Phase II Trial of Conformal Radiation Therapy for Pediatric Patients with Localized Ependymoma, Chemotherapy Prior to Second Surgery for Incompletely Resected Ependymoma and Observation for Completely Resected, Differentiated, Supratentorial Ependymoma
• St. Jude Ependymoma Information
• Cancer Back Up - Ependymoma

• Paige For Hope - A childhood brain tumor survivor
• Avery Ann - A childhood brain tumor patient/warrior
• Ependyparent - parent of a child with cancer
• Little CTel - Living with a child with cancer