Cerebral cysticercosis mimicking malignant glioma: A case report

BACKGROUND: Cysticercosis is the most common parasitic infection of the central nervous system in the United States. CASE: A case of cerebral cysticercosis radiographically and pathologically mimicked a high grade glioma. A symptomatic solitary cerebral hemispheric lesion in a child, unknown at the time to have been born in Korea and adopted by U.S. residents, was initially evaluated by stereotactically guided needle biopsy and diagnosed as having malignant glioma in accord with the radiographic impression. The subsequently excised mass revealed cysticercus with an exuberant granulomatous inflammation and gliosis surrounding a fibrous-walled cyst. CONCLUSION: In the setting of a solitary parenchymal cyst, the radiographic differential diagnosis of neurocysticercosis often includes a primary neoplasm. However, to our knowledge, this is the first report of cysticercosis’s also simulating a brain neoplasm pathologically.