Pancytopaenia from a disseminated anaplastic oligodendroglioma

The rarity of extraneural metastases from a central nervous system (CNS) tumour may mean that the manifestations of a metastatic lesion are confused with a second pathology. This report concerns a patient who developed a fatal and clinically unexplained, pancytopaenia 3 months after removal of an anaplastic oligodendroglioma. Postmortem revealed widespread bone marrow dissemination of the CNS primary and a solitary liver metastasis. A brief review of the literature and some possible reasons for the rarity of extracranial metastases are discussed.