A CASE OF NEUROSCHWANNOMA OF THE ESOPHAGUS

An extremely rare case of neuroschwannoma of the esophagus in a 66-year-old woman is reported. The patient was asymptomatic and was pointed out an abnormal shadow on a chest simple X-ray film under observation for another disease. After close examinations the patient was operated on with a diagnosis of posterior mediastinal tumor. During the operation the tumor was found arising in the muscular layer of the esophageal wall. Histopathologically it presented difficulty in differential diagnosis from esophageal leiomyoma. On immunohistochemical examinations, the tumor was positive for S-100 protein. Consequently the difinite diagnosis of esophageal neuroschwannoma was made. So far only 10 cases of neuroschwannoma of the esophagus, including our case, have been reported in Japan. This rare case is reported here, together with a review of the literature.