Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumor (PNST)

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Peripheral nerves receive messages from the central nervous system (the brain and spinal cord) that stimulate voluntary movement. Nerve sheath tumors can develop along any of these nerves in the head or neck or arise on the nerves before they exit the skull. They can also grow along the length of the nerve outside the skull, which can cause the nerve to malfunction.

Doctors at the Florida Hospital Brain and Spinal Cancer Program treat the two most common forms of peripheral nerve sheath tumors (PNST). These types of PNST are almost always benign. Less than 1% are malignant.

• Neurofibroma (new-roh-fi-bro-mah): Usually found in individuals who have neurofibromatosis type 1, a genetically inherited disease, these nerve sheath tumors can cause physical disfiguration along with pain and even disability. In contrast to schwannomas (another type of tumor originating in the Schwann cells), neurofibromas incorporate many additional types of cells and structural elements into them. This not only makes them difficult to identify, but hard to determine how they originate or develop in the first place.
• Acoustic neuroma (acoustic new-roh-mah): Also known as vestibular schwannoma, this tumor originates in the Schwann cells, which are responsible for the myelin sheath in the peripheral nervous system. Approximately 3,000 cases are diagnosed in the U.S. each year, accounting for 5-10% of all intracranial neoplasms in adults.

Both of these types of PNST are more often see as slow growing tumors.