Peritumoral lymphoid cuff correlates well with lymph node enlargement in gastrointestinal schwannomas.

Background/Aims: To determine the incidence of regional lymphadenopathy in gastrointestinal (GI) schwannoma and to evaluate the relationship between peritumoral lymphoid cuff and lymphadenopathy.

Methods: We queried 118 GI tract schwannomas and reviewed radiologic findings, intraoperative findings, and electronic medical records of all cases for enlarged regional lymph nodes.

Results: Location of tumors included 85 gastric (72%), 11 colonic (9.3%), 7 esophageal (5.9%), 3 pancreatic (2.5%), 1 hepatic (0.8%), and 11 mesenteric (9.3%). The size of the tumors ranged from 0.2 to 11 cm (mean 3.8 cm). Histologically, 70.3% showed a peritumoral lymphoid cuff ranging in thickness from 0.3 to 6 mm (mean 1.6 mm). The peritumoral lymphoid cuff was significantly more frequent in gastric schwannomas (78.8%) followed by colonic (72.7%), esophageal (57.1%) and rare in other locations ( p = 0.001). Of the 106 cases for which clinical or radiologic data was available for, 76 cases (71.7%) showed regional lymphadenopathy. The presence of peritumoral lymphoid cuff showed significant correlation with regional lymphadenopathy ( p < 0.001) and the size of enlarged lymph nodes ( p = 0.002).

Conclusions: A peritumoral lymphoid cuff is frequently seen in GI tract schwannomas and correlates well with regional lymphadenopathy. However, in a significant subset (29.7%), a lymphoid cuff was not present warranting continued need for caution in the preoperative radiologic and postoperative pathologic diagnoses.