Revised: June 2014

Choroid plexus papillomas and carcinomas are rare tumours. Given their location they will often cause hydrocephalus. Imaging studies will reveal a densely enhancing mass. Papillomas can often be completely removed surgically which equates with cure and can preclude the need of a shunt. Carcinomas are predictably more invasive and thus less amenable to surgical resection. Nonetheless, gross total resection has been associated with increased survival.  They require evaluation of the craniospinal axis for CSF seeding and adjuvant radiation therapy.  Adjuvant chemotherapy is often used in young children < age 3 but its use in older individuals is not standardized.  One should bear in mind that the choroid plexus can be a site for metastatic deposits, as well as the site of origin for glial tumours and meningiomas.