Anaplastic cerebral hemangiopericytoma: Rare variant of a rare disease

Intracranial hemangiopericytoma (HPC) is a rare tumor of central nervous system, anaplastic type (grade 3) being the rarest. HPC closely mimics meningiomas in clinical and radiological features, thus, its diagnosis and treatment is a challenge. We report a rare case of histopathologically diagnosed anaplastic HPC of frontal lobe of the brain. A lady in her 60′s presented with neurological signs of impaired memory, headache, decreased vision and slurring of speech that gradually progressed to aphasia over a period of 2 months. A space occupying lesion was identified on magnetic resonance imaging in the left frontal region. Left frontal craniotomy and Simpson grade 1 excision of the tumor was done. Postoperative radiotherapy was administered in view of positive margins on histopathological specimen. We describe the clinical, radiological, and histological features of this tumor, its outcome on completion of treatment and on subsequent follow-up along with a review of the literature.