A 42-year-old man complains of head¬ache when he wakes up in the morning. It lasts into the afternoon and then subsides. Headache has been present for a few months. CT scan shows a frontal lobe mass with focal areas of calcification. You strongly suspect the pa¬tient has
A frontal headache when waking up in the morning and a computerized tomography (CT) scan showing a frontal lobe mass with focal areas of calcification are characteristic findings in oligodendrogliomas, which commonly involve the frontal lobe. These are tumors derived from oligodendrocytes that frequently locate in the cerebral hemispheres of adults 30 to 50 years of age. Calcifications are visible on routine skull films or CT in 90% of cases. They commonly have an admixture with other types of glial tumors, such as an astrocytoma (50%). Overall, oligodendrogliomas have a good prognosis but a high recurrence rate.
An astrocytoma
A pinealoma
A meningioma
An oligodendroglioma