Gastrointestinal autonomic nerve tumour of jejunum presenting as a perforated mass

Gastrointestinal autonomic nerve tumour (GANT) is a rare mesenchymal neoplasm of the gastrointestinal tract arising from the neural plexus of the intestinal wall. Herein, we present a 70-year-old male patient presenting with a clinical picture of acute abdomen. Examination of the specimen obtained from the small bowel by means of complete resection revealed a relatively soft submucosal mass measuring 4.5 x 3 cm in size with spindle morphology and high mitotic activity (> 10 mitoses per 50 high-power fields). The tumour cells were strong positive for c-kit (CD117), S-100 protein and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), but did not harbour mutations in the c-kit and PDGFR genes. The diagnosis was based on light microscopy and immunohistochemical verification. We started tyrosine kinase inhibitor 400 mg/day. The patient is currently alive without metastasis at 28 months postoperatively. He is under close follow-up and survival data of the patient will be presented in the later studies.