Pancreatic Schwannoma Diagnosed by Endoscopic Ultrasound-guided Fine-needle Aspiration

Abstract

A schwannoma is a tumor originating from Schwann cells. It is occasionally observed in the abdominal viscera in the form of a submucosal tumor derived from the gastric or duodenal muscularis propria. To date, only a few studies have reported on pancreatic schwannomas. Furthermore, very few patients are preoperatively diagnosed with pancreatic schwannoma because of the lack of established imaging characteristics distinguishing this type of schwannoma from other conditions. We herein report the first English publication of pancreatic schwannoma in which surgery was avoided because a pathological diagnosis was made solely on the basis of endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration findings.