Neuropathology in Canada: the first one hundred years.

We describe the evolution of neuropathology in Canada, beginning with William Osler who began working in Montréal in 1874 and finishing with the major period of expansion in the 1970s. Organized services began in the 1930s, in Montréal with the neurosurgeons Wilder Penfield and William Cone, and in Toronto with Eric Linell and Mary Tom, who both began their careers as neuroanatomists. Jerzy Olszewski and Gordon Mathieson, who trained in Montréal and Toronto, drove the creation of the Canadian Association of Neuropathologists in 1960.

Pseudoglandular elements in schwannomas.

Context: Uncommon examples of schwannomas are seen in which a coexisting glandular component is present. The pseudoglandular schwannoma is a relatively recently described variant in which cystic spaces are lined by pseudocolumnar or cuboidal-like neoplastic Schwann cells exhibiting an epithelial-like appearance.

Objectives: To determine the incidence of pseudoglandular elements in schwannomas, to describe the variable morphology of the schwannomas that may contain pseudoglandular elements, and to discuss the potential mechanisms of development and biological significance of these elements.

Efficacy and safety evaluation of human reovirus type 3 in immunocompetent animals: racine and nonhuman primates.

Purpose: Human reovirus type 3 has been proposed to kill cancer cells with an activated Ras signaling pathway. The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of reovirus in immunocompetent glioma animal models and safety/toxicity in immunocompetent animals, including nonhuman primates.

Experimental Design: Racine glioma cells 9L and RG2 were implanted s.

Reovirus as an experimental therapeutic for brain and leptomeningeal metastases from breast cancer.

Brain and leptomeningeal metastases are common in breast cancer patients and our current treatments are ineffective. Reovirus type 3 is a replication competent, naturally occurring virus that usurps the activated Ras-signaling pathway (or an element thereof) of tumor cells and lyses them but leaves normal cells relatively unaffected. In this study we evaluated reovirus as an experimental therapeutic in models of central nervous system (CNS) metastasis from breast cancer.

Reovirus prolongs survival and reduces the frequency of spinal and leptomeningeal metastases from medulloblastoma.

Medulloblastoma (MB), the most common pediatric brain tumor, is a highly malignant disease with a 5-year survival rate of only 60%. Tumor cells invade surrounding tissue and disseminate through cerebral spinal fluid, making treatment difficult. Human reovirus type 3 exploits an activated Ras pathway in tumor cells to support productive infection as an oncolytic virus.