Haemangiopericytoma of the central nervous system

SUMMARYThe records of four patients presenting with a histological diagnosis of haemangiopericytoma of the central nervous system, in Auckland, New Zealand, between 1970 and 1990 were reviewed retrospectively, with the aim of determining the natural history of the disease and response to various treatment modalities. Three out of the four patients reviewed presented with primary cerebral disease and the fourth with a primary spinal cord tumour. All three cerebral primary patients were initially treated with local surgical excision. All three patients received radical radiotherapy following local recurrence. The first two patients remained disease‐free locally although one patient developed a solitary liver metastasis 5 years after radiotherapy. The third patient was referred with multiple cerebral metastases and failed to respond to radiotherapy. The patient with the primary lesion in the spinal cord was treated with local excision followed by postoperative radiotherapy and remains disease‐free 17 years after treatment. One patient failed to respond to chemotherapy, prescribed to treat a local recurrence adjacent to the previous radiotherapy field. This was successfully excised sub