• Astrocytomas are most common intracranial tumors composed predominantly of neoplastic astrocytes. They are subdivided into low grade astrocytoma (Grade II), anaplastic astrocytomas (Grade III) and glioblastoma (Grade IV). Grade I is reserved for special histologic variants, such as pilocytic astrocytoma.
• The preferential location for astrocytomas is the brain where it can arise anywhere from cerebral hemispheres down to the pons, depending on the tumor type, histologic grade as well as patient's age. Tumours can reach the spinal cord through contiguous spread or metastasis; less frequently, they can originate in the spinal cord (ex. anaplastic astrocytoma)
• Gross pathology: astrocytoma of cervical spinal cord (below, left); metastatic lesions on cervical cord and spinal roots (below, right)

• Microscopic pathology of an astrocytoma (below)

• MRI images: T1 image of a cervical astrocytoma (below, left); T2 image of another cervical astrocytoma (below, center); T2 image of spinal cord astrocytoma with meningioma of the falx (below, right)