Gastrointestinal Autonomic Nerve Tumor: Case Report and Review of the Literature

Abstract

Gastrointestinal autonomic nerve (GAN) tumor is an uncommon specialized form of gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST). We report the case of a 46-year-old man affected by this tumor. The neoplasm arose from the sigmoid colon. The patient underwent surgery but eight months later an omental relapse occurred. A second laparotomy was successfully performed and the patient is free of disease at 21 months of follow-up. To our knowledge this is the first case of a large bowel GAN tumor described in the literature.

Colonic Gastrointestinal Autonomic Nervous Tumor in a Patient with Crohn’s Disease

“…Some patients may have a history of neurofibromatosis or endocrine abnormality, but no association with inflammatory bowel disease has been described. The small intestine and stomach are the more common sites of primary tumor (5, 7), with only three cases of colonic GANTs reported so far in the literature (8)(9)(10). However, like GIST, colonic tumors usually have aggressive behavior and are associated with reduced patient survival (7).…”

Gastrointestinal Autonomic Nerve Tumors: a Clinical Review

“…The first and only case of esophageal GANT was reported by Lam et al 5 in 1996 and the first case of colonic GANTs in adults were reported by Wang et al 7 and Pari et al 8 in 1998 and 2001, respectively. In 2000, Varan et al 17 reported a case of GANT of the descending colon in a 45-day-old girl; the youngest ever reported patient with GANT.…”

Stromal tumor of duodenal autonomous nerves (plexosarcoma)

“…GANTsunaj če šćelo ka li zo va ninaže lu cuitan kom cre vu [3], ali su opi sa ni i na jed wa ku [4], ko lo nu [5,6], re tro pe ri to ne u mu [7,8] i mo krać noj be ši ci [9]. Obič no se ja vqa ju po sle 60. go di ne, ma da se mo gu ja vi ti u svim sta ro snim do bi ma [8], ta ko da je opi san i kod de ča ka uz ra sta od se dam go di na [10].…”