Description
The specimen is an infant's brain and shows a lobular tumour at the base of the brain, impinging
on the ventricular system with ventricular dilatation.
History
The child apparently made normal progress at birth until it was noted that the head was
increasing in size with abnormal eye movements. Investigation showed a cystic mass in the right
cerebral hemisphere but at operation tumour was found at the medial edge of the cyst. The child
died at the age of 5 months. At autopsy, there was a marked frontal bossing and widely opened
fontanelles. Histologically the tumour was described as a juvenile astrocytoma of pilocytic type.