This edition describes the spectrum of neoplasms, hamartomas, hyperplasias, reactive lesions, and inflammatory pseudotumours arising from, or associated with, peripheral nerves. Included are lesions affecting spinal nerves and extradural portions of cranial nerves. Specifically excluded from this discussion are lesions of the optic nerve, a central nervous system structure. Peripheral nerve tumours are generally classified as soft tissue tumours, but they differ significantly from most neoplasms in this category. Notable differences include the frequent association of nerve sheath tumours with genetic disorders and the origin of a majority of malignant nerve sheath tumours from neurofibroma, a benign precursor lesion. Furthermore, tumours of peripheral nerves are histologically diverse and arise in a complex tissue with distinctive anatomic compartments. This volume will be a useful reference for pathologists, residents and students for many years.

In the decade since the publication of the Third Series Fascicle on Tumors of the Central Nervous System, many new entities have been described, prognostic significance of certain tumor subtypes established, grading systems revised, and molecular features have been correlated with tumor types and grades. Drs. Burger and Scheithauer have integrated all of these new findings, as well as classical morphological clinical and neuroradiological descriptions and illustrations, into an entirely new and completely up-to-date text/atlas that demystifies the complex subject of CNS tumors and tumor-like lesions for the general pathologists. The discussion of normal anatomy includes cytologic and radiologic correlations, as do discussions of each of the common and rare CNS lesions. Virtually all of the non-radiographic illustrations are in color, and references are current through 2006 and 2007 (the 2007 World Health Organization classification is used throughout the Fascicle). In addition to encyclopedic coverage of CNS neoplasms, approximately 15 percent of the almost 600 text pages are devoted to the numerous benign tumor-like lesions of various etiologies that may be mistaken for neoplasms. A set of fifteen Appendices is devoted to differential diagnostic algorithms which simplify the approach to a difficult specimen. The authoritative yet user-friendly approach of the authors has created a work that will be useful for many years to both pathologist and clinicians interested in tumors of the central nervous system.