WHAT IS GLIOMATOSIS CEREBRI?

Gliomatosis Cerebri (GC) is a universally fatal extensive and diffuse infiltration of brain parenchyma by a glial tumor. Many aspects of this phenomenon remain unknown. 

Gliomatosis Cerebri is a rare brain cancer that is highly aggressive and very resistant to treatment. These malignancies are not lumps like other tumors, but cancerous threads that spread very quickly and infiltrate deep into the surrounding brain tissue, or into multiple parts of the brain simultaneously, making them very difficult to remove with surgery or treat with radiation. Gliomatosis cerebri is extremely rare, with fewer than 100 cases diagnosed in the United States each year. It affects males and females equally.

Gliomatosis cerebri is a kind of glioma, meaning that it originates in the glial (connective) cells of the brain.  It’s related to glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the deadly brain tumor that claimed the lives of U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy and baseball star Gary Carter. But where GBM tends to occur in older adults, gliomatosis cerebri is more commonly found in children, teenagers, and young adults.  Gliomatosis cerebri is also more diffuse than GBM, making it even more difficult to treat even though it is often less malignant. (Read more about GBM.)