Sporadic

“Sporadic” refers to something that occurs irregularly or infrequently, without a predictable pattern. In medical and scientific contexts, it describes cases or events that happen randomly and are not inherited or related to a known family history or consistent external factor.

For example:

1. Sporadic Disease: A disease that arises independently in individuals rather than as a result of genetics or inheritance. In this case, “sporadic” indicates that the condition is not typically passed down through families, unlike hereditary or familial cases.

2. Sporadic Occurrence: An event that happens unpredictably and intermittently, rather than continuously or in a clustered fashion.

In the case of “sporadic vestibular schwannoma,” the term suggests that these tumors arise randomly in individuals, without a known genetic cause or familial link, and generally affect only one side.

This is in contrast to cases where a genetic predisposition, like neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2), causes tumors to occur on both sides.

Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are hemorrhagic vascular disorders with varied clinical and radiological presentations, occurring sporadically due to MAP3K3 or PIK3CA mutations or through inherited germline mutations of CCM genes