Pancreatic schwannoma: report of a case

Among pancreatic neoplasms, pancreatic schwannoma is quite rare. We report a case of solitary pancreatic schwannoma, plus a literature review of this tumor. A 71-year-old woman was diagnosed by abdominal ultrasonography as having a pancreatic tumor and was hospitalized in our department at Kumamoto University Hospital on January 26, 2006. Abdominal computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and endoscopic ultrasonography all showed this tumor, which was located in the body of the pancreas, to have cystic and solid components, and with a septum in the cystic part of the lesion. The tumor, preoperatively identified as a mucinous cystic neoplasm, was clearly separated from the normal pancreatic parenchyma. We performed a spleen-preserving distal pancreatectomy with a lymph node dissection on February 7, 2006. A histopathological examination of the resected specimen by means of hematoxylin and eosin revealed the tumor to consist of two parts: one with a compact spindle cell pattern (Antoni type A), and the other showing degeneration of fat (Antoni type B). We also found positive results for immunohistochemical staining for S-100 and vimentin. These findings confirmed the tumor's classification as a pancreatic schwannoma.