Abstract
The patient was a 63-year-old woman. A tumor (diameter, 20 mm) was detected by chest CT in her upper thoracic esophagus during postoperative observation for breast cancer. Esophagogastroscopy showed a submucosal tumor in the upper thoracic esophagus. The tumor cells, sampled by endoscopic ultrasonography guided fine needle aspiration biopsy, showed a positive reaction for S100 protein. The esophageal tumor showed a positive accumulation for FDG in PET (SUVmax, 5.28). Because the tumor appeared enlarged (diameter, 25 mm) during chest CT, we performed thoracoscopic enucleation based on the diagnosis of esophageal schwannoma. The tumor was diagnosed as schwannoma of the esophagus because the spindle tumor cells were immunohistochemically positive for vimentin and S100 protein and negative for α-SMA, KIT, and CD34. Thus, we report a case of schwannoma of the thoracic esophagus with reference to a comparison of the clinicopathologic features of 34 patients in Japan with those of leiomyoma.
