Despite recent signs of progress in diagnostic radiology, it is quite rare that a glioblastoma (GBM) is detected asymptomatically. We describe two patients with asymptomatic nonenhancing GBMs that were not diagnosed with neoplasia at first. The patients had brain scans as medical checkups, and incidentally lesions were detected. In both cases, surgical specimens histopathologically showed no evidence of neoplasia, whereas molecular genetic findings were isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH)-wildtype, O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase promoter (pMGMT) unmethylated, and telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) promoter mutated, which matched to GBM. One patient was observed without adjuvant therapy and the tumor recurred 7 months later. Reoperation was performed, and histopathologically GBM was confirmed with the same molecular diagnosis as the first surgical specimen. Another patient was carefully observed, and chemoradiotherapy was begun 6 months after the operation following the extension of the lesion. Eventually, because of disease progression, both patients deceased. We postulate that in each case, the tumor was not lower-grade glioma but corresponded to the early growth phase of GBM cells. Thus far, cases of malignant transformation from lower-grade glioma or asymptomatic GBM with typical histologic features are reported. Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge, no such case of nonenhancing, nonhistologically confirmed GBM was reported. We conjecture these cases shed light on the yet unknown natural history of GBM. GBM can take the form of radiological nonenhancing and histological nonneoplastic fashion before typical morphology. Molecular genetic analysis can diagnose atypical preceding GBM, and we recommend early surgical removal and adjuvant treatment.
Keywords: IDH-wildtype; TERT mutated; asymptomatic glioblastoma; nonenhancing glioblastoma.
© 2022 The Japan Neurosurgical Society.