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Glomus tumor of the esophagus

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Abstract

Here we report a case of primary glomus tumor of the esophagus, which is extremely rare, and review the corresponding literature. A 69-year-old man underwent screening endoscopy during a medical checkup and a submucosal tumor was incidentally found in the midthoracic esophagus. Endoscopic ultrasonography revealed that the tumor originated from the muscle layer of the esophagus. Computed tomography and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography revealed neither lymphadenopathy nor distant metastasis. Endoscopic ultrasonography-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy indicated epithelioid mesenchymal tumor. Immunohistochemically, the tumor cells were positive for alpha smooth muscle actin, and focally positive for Discovered on GIST1 but negative for c-kit and protein kinase C theta, suggesting that the lesion was a KIT-negative epithelioid gastrointestinal stromal tumor or glomus tumor. The tumor was successfully enucleated through right thoracotomy. Pathological examination confirmed that the tumor was a glomus tumor of the esophagus. The patient remains healthy without any recurrence to date one year after surgery.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Iizuka Hospital, 3-83 Yoshio-machi, Iizuka, Fukuoka, 820-8505, Japan

    Koujiro Nishida, Rintaro Yoshida, Tadashi Koga & Kiyoshi Kajiyama

  2. Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan

    Masayuki Watanabe

  3. Department of Anatomic Pathology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Hidetaka Yamamoto

  4. Department of Pathology, Iizuka Hospital, Iizuka, Japan

    Aya Fujita

Authors
  1. Koujiro Nishida
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  2. Masayuki Watanabe
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  3. Hidetaka Yamamoto
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  4. Rintaro Yoshida
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  5. Aya Fujita
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  6. Tadashi Koga
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  7. Kiyoshi Kajiyama
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Correspondence to Koujiro Nishida.

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Nishida, K., Watanabe, M., Yamamoto, H. et al. Glomus tumor of the esophagus. Esophagus 10, 46–50 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10388-012-0345-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10388-012-0345-5

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