Peripheral neuroepithelioma developing in the abdominal cavity

Peripheral neuroepitheliomas are rare malignant tumors of presumed neural crest origin, arising outside the central and sympathetic nervous system. We present herein a case of a young man with diffuse peripheral neuroepithelioma of the abdominal cavity. Although we twice attempted a debulking procedure on this patient, and treated him with alternating VIP-CAV combined chemotherapy, his disease showed a relentless course without responding to any treatment. The development of peripheral neuroepithelioma in the abdominal cavity is an extremely rare occurrence. These rare malignant tumors, of presumed neural crest origin, arise outside the central and sympathetic nervous systems (1). Other names for this tumor are: extracranial primitive neuroectodermal tumor (PNET), Askin tumor, peripheral or adult neuroblastoma (2,3,4). We present a case of a young man with diffuse development of this tumor in the abdominal cavity.