Ixquiac-Pineda GA, Ortiz-Abundez J, Hernández-Toriz N, Flores D, Flores-Ojeda R, Alvarado I

Language: Spanish
References: 13
Page: 439-442
PDF size: 136.34 Kb.

ABSTRACT

Background: Ganglioneuroblastomas are uncommon malignant tumors of the sympathetic nervous system that usually occur in children. To our knowledge, 36 cases have been reported. Conversely, ganglioneuroblastoma rarely occurs in adults. Surgical excision is the primary form of therapy, whereas chemotherapy and radiotherapy have resulted in low benefit. Our objective was to describe an uncommon adrenal ganglioneuroblastoma in an adult and to report the most important aspects of this entity.
Clinical case: We present the case of a 29-year-old male initially diagnosed with left renal cell tumor. He was suspected to have a metastatic Wilms’ tumor. The patient was admitted for chemotherapy. Due to his high response, a radical nephrectomy was performed. The findings were upper pole tumor with involvement of the left adrenal gland. Histologically the tumor was diagnosed to be a metastatic adrenal ganglioneuroblastoma with positive nodal involvement of 14/18 nodes.
Conclusions: Symptoms associated with ganglioneuroblastoma may be due to local tumor growth, paraneoplastic syndromes, or metastatic disease. In the present case, pain was the initial symptom. The patient was admitted for chemotherapy due to metastatic disease and his response was significant. Because of this, we performed surgical excision of the tumor, intending to improve his quality of life with knowledge that the prognosis would not change.

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