ABSTRACT

Gliomatosis cerebri is a rarely seen diffuse, infiltrating glial tumor that usually affects bilateral hemispheres and at least two lobes of the brain extending to infratentorial structures and even to spinal cord, with a very poor prognosis. Clinical presentation is nonspesific and not in correlation with the anatomic extent of the disease. Magnetic resonance imaging is superior to computed tomography in diagnosis showing the extent of disease, and computed tomography has low sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis. Positron emission tomography (PET) with 2-deoksi-2-[18F] Flour-D-glukoz (FDG) or FDG PET/computed tomography has an important role in demonstrating the appropriate biopsy areas and differentiating pathologies mimicking gliomatosis cerebri on computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. Combined and effective use of anatomical and metabolic diagnostic methods may have a great importance in the early diagnosis and treatment of gliomatosis cerebri as the definitive diagnosis of gliomatosis cerebri is generally possible with postmortem histopathological examination.