Dense core vesicles in the desmoplastic variant of cerebral neuroblastoma

A desmoplastic primary cerebral neuroblastoma originating in the frontal lobe of a boy who died at the age of 6 years contained dense core vesicles within the cytoplasm of neoplastic cells as evidence of neuronal differentiation. Sarcomatous transformation had occurred at the time of recurrence. At autopsy, he also had cerebrospinal and extraneural metastases.