Gastric Schwannoma

A gastric schwannoma is a rare primary spindle cell mesenchymal tumor of the digestive tract. Gastric schwannomas originate from Schwann cells of the peripheral nerves in the stomach. The majority of schwannomas are benign, slow growing tumors only a few of which develop into malignancies. Due to their indolent course, in most cases, gastric schwannomas are asymptomatic or discovered as an incidental finding on cross-sectional imaging or endoscopy. When symptomatic, the most common presenting symptoms are abdominal pain, upper gastrointestinal bleeding and intra- abdominal mass. Preoperatively, gastric schwannomas are difficult to differentiate from other mesenchymal tumors, such as gastrointestinal stroma or leiomyoma which develop from mesenchymal stem cells. The optimal management of the tumor is based on the symptoms of the patient, tumor size and histologic grading and the prognosis is excellent after complete surgical or endoscopic removal. Gastric schwannomas need multidisciplinary team management for definitive diagnosis and management, including specialists from gastroenterology, surgery, radiology and pathology.