Abstract
Gastric schwannoma (GS) is a rare neoplasm of the stomach. It accounts for 0.2% of all gastric tumors and is mostly benign, slow-growing, and asymptomatic. Due to its rarity, GS is not widely recognized by clinicians, and the precise differential diagnosis between GS and other gastric submucosal tumors remains difficult preoperatively. The present study reports a case of GS misdiagnosed as gastrointestinal stromal tumor and reviews the clinical, imaging, and pathological features, treatment, and follow-up of 221 patients with GS previously reported in the English literature. Although GS is rare, the case reported in the current study highlights the importance of including GS in differential diagnoses of gastric submucosal tumors. Furthermore, the findings of the review suggest that although many cases are asymptomatic, the most common symptoms are abdominal pain or discomfort, not gastrointestinal bleeding, and malignant GSs present with clinical symptoms more commonly. Although large-sample multicenter studies on the efficacy, safety, and oncological outcomes of minimally invasive techniques are required, the findings presented herein may be helpful for clinicians when diagnosing or treating GS.
Highlights
Gastric schwannoma (GS) is a rare submucosal tumor that arises from Schwann cells in the neural plexus of the stomach
The present study reports the case of a 61-year-old woman with GS and reviews the current knowledge of GS available based on sporadic case reports and the occasional series of case reports in the literature
In 71 (43.3%) out of 164 cases, GS was identified incidentally, whereas 22 of the patients (11.6%) initially presented with multiple symptoms [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21], 34 (20.7%) presented with one symptom, including abdominal pain or discomfort, and 21 cases (12.8%) were reported with gastrointestinal bleeding. These findings indicate that the majority of cases of GS are asymptomatic and that the most common initial symptom is abdominal pain or discomfort, not gastrointestinal bleeding, which differs from the findings of other case series [16]
Summary
Gastric schwannoma (GS) is a rare submucosal tumor that arises from Schwann cells in the neural plexus of the stomach. It accounts for only 0.2% of all gastric tumors, 6.3% of gastric mesenchymal tumors, and 4% of all benign tumors of the stomach [1]. More than 200 new cases of GS have been reported worldwide, and the findings of imaging findings and analysis of the gross features of GS have been described in some sporadic case reports and the occasional series of GS cases. The present study reports the case of a 61-year-old woman with GS and reviews the current knowledge of GS available based on sporadic case reports and the occasional series of case reports in the literature.
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