Lymphoplasmacyte-rich meningioma in the central nervous system: An unusual case report

Lymphoplasmacyte-rich meningioma (LPRM) is a rare meningioma characterized by significant infiltration of plasma cells and lymphocytes, and changes in the ratio of meningeal epithelial components. According to the World Health Organization, tumors of the central nervous system are classified as grade I tumors.

A 44-year-old man presented to our department with complaints of limb weakness accompanied by hand numbness. Half a month before admission, the patient's limb weakness worsened and he could not walk and raise his hands, with limb sensory disturbance and incontinence.

Magnetic resonance imaging of the head and cervical spinal cord showed a diffuse extramedullary mass creeping on the tentorium and skull base meninges along the clivus down to the sixth cervical spinal meninges. The cervical spinal cord was enveloped and pressed (Fig. 1A-C). Postoperative histopathological examination showed meningothelial areas admixed with lymphocytes and plasma cells (Fig. 2D-H), indicating that the mass was a LPRM.

Suboccipital craniotomy, C1 laminectomy, and C2-C6 laminoplasty were performed for this patient, and postsurgical pathology showed that the tumor was a LPRM with large amounts of lymphocytes and plasma cells.

After 2 weeks of active treatment, the patient died of worsening pneumonia.

LPRM is a rare variant of meningioma, and it is more unusual that the lesions involve the intracranial dura mater and the entire cervical spinal meninges. So far, surgical resection has been the main treatment for LPRM, but according to its own characteristics of lymphoplasmacyte-rich, immunotherapy may become a new treatment option.