A rare, mostly benign, primary tumor of the meninges (arachnoid cap cells), usually located in the supratentorial compartment, commonly appearing in the sixth and seventh decade of life, clinically silent in most cases or causing hyperostosis close to the tumor and resulting in focal bulging and localized pain in less than 10% of cases. Additional features may include headache, seizures, gradual personality changes (apathy and dementia), anosmia, impaired vision, exophthalmos, hearing loss, ataxia, dysmetria, hypotonia, nystagmus, and rarely spontaneous bleeding.
A malignant, trophoblastic and aggressive cancer, usually of the placenta. It is characterized by early hematogenous spread to the lungs and belongs to the far end of the spectrum of gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD), a subset of germ cell tumors.
Production of human chorionic gonadotropin-beta subunit associated with an osteolytic meningioma. Case report.
Rau CS, Lin JW, Liang CL, Lee TC, Chen HJ, Lu K. J Neurosurg. 2002;97(1):197-9.
The authors believe that meningioma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of choriocarcinoma, embryonal cell tumor, germinoma, and metastatic ovarian tumor associated with elevated levels of beta-HCG.
