Granular Cell Tumors of the Neurohypophysis

Abstract

Granular cell tumors (myoblastomas) are found in a wide variety of cutaneous, oral, and visceral sites (for review see Moscovie and Azar, 1967; Strong et al., 1970). In the nervous system they have been found in the peripheral nerves (Bangle, 1953; Buldzolovich, 1968; Carstens, 1970; Fust and Custer, 1948, 1949; Garancis et al., 1970), the cervical spinal leptomeninges, the cerebral hemispheres (Markesbery et al., 1973), and the pituitary. Two examples of metastatic, intracerebral neoplasms believed to have been granular cell tumors have also been recorded (Meredith et al., 1958; Schwidde et al., 1951).—Most often granular cell tumors of the posterior lobe or of the pituitary stalk are encountered incidentally at autopsy as microscopic nodules of large, pale, granular cells. A frequency of 1.8 to 17% has been reported (Buston et al., 1962; Hamperl, 1937; Harland, 1956; Kiyono, 1926; Löffler, 1929; Luse and Kernohan, 1955 a; Mink et al.,1955; Popovitch et al., 1970; Priesel, 1922; Rap and Zarsaka, 1970; Shanklin, 1947, 1953; Simonds and Brandes, 1925; Sternberg, 1921). Occasionally they become large and produce clinical symptoms. The first such case has been described by Lüthi and Klingler (1951). Since then additional patients have been reported making up a total of 21 cases (Bara and Lantos, 1968; Burston et al., 1962; Daron et al., 1956; Glazer et al., 1956; Harland, 1956; Jenevein, 1964; Iliescu, 1969; Korbine and Ross, 1973; Lima et al., 1960; Liss and Kahn, 1958; Mink et al., 1955; Poppen and Packard, 1966; Rubinstein, 1972; Satyamurti and Huntington, 1972; Sekino et al., 1969; Symon et al., 1971; Talerman and Dawson-Butterworth, 1966; Ulrich et al., 1974).