Vascular endothelial growth factor and malignant transformation of a meningioma: Case report

Although meningiomas are common benign intracranial tumors which grow slowl y, we occasionally encountered aggressive or malignant ones. One of these c ases showed an interesting relationship to vascular endothelial growth fact or (VEGF). A 39-year-old woman underwent resection of a sphenoid ridge meni ngioma; the residual tumor showed evidence of malignant transformation 14 y ears later. We immunohistochemically examined six successive surgical speci mens plus the autopsy specimen of this patient's tumor for proliferative po tential, vascularity, and expression of various growth factors. In the latt er stage of clinical courses, proliferative potential and vascularity was s een to increase year by year. Expression of VEGF was upregulated and correl ated with vascularity. On the other hand, basic fibroblast growth factor (b FGF), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) and epidermal growth factor (EG F) were not overexpressed in this tumor. This case suggests that overexpres sion of VEGF and increased angiogenic potential might be involved in malign ant transformation of meningiomas.