Gliosarcoma with Systemic Metastasis Showing Favorable Response to Ifosfamide, Carboplatin, and Etoposide Chemotherapy: An Autopsy Case Report

Gliosarcoma is a rare malignant neoplasm. It accounts for approximately 2% of all glioblastomas. To date, there is no established treatment method for gliosarcoma, and a variety of therapies, such as surgical resection, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, are typically employed. Here, we describe a patient with gliosarcoma who, despite multiple tumor metastases throughout the body, including the lungs and lymph nodes, achieved a relatively long survival due to salvage therapy with local irradiation and remarkably effective chemotherapy with low-dose ifosfamide, carboplatin, and etoposide therapy. When the patient died, we performed autopsy and confirmed the nature of the primary and metastatic tumor cells that had spread throughout the patient's body. Clinical and systemic histological studies also suggested the possibility of re-metastasis to the brain from systemic metastatic foci. Gliosarcoma appears to have characteristics similar to sarcoma as well as a higher risk of systemic metastasis. Therefore, a careful follow-up is necessary in such patients.