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neurofibroma
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neurofibroma

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A neurofibroma is a benign nerve-sheath tumor in the peripheral nervous system. In 90% of cases, they are found as stand-alone tumors (solitary neurofibroma, solitary nerve sheath tumor or sporadic neurofibroma), while the remainder are found in persons with neurofibromatosis type I (NF1), an autosomal-dominant genetically inherited disease. They can result in a range of symptoms from physical disfiguration and pain to cognitive disability.

Key facts

Medical condition (new).name
Neurofibroma
Medical condition (new).image
Neurofibroma02.jpg
Medical condition (new).caption
Neurofibroma of the skin in a person with neurofibromatosis type I
Medical condition (new).field
Neuro-oncology

via Wikipedia infobox

Research

5,328,410 papers

via PubMed

Wikidata facts

Image
Diffuse neurofibroma.jpg
Show 5 more facts
Commons category
Neurofibroma
NCI Thesaurus ID
C3272
health specialty
oncology
on focus list of Wikimedia project
WikiProject Medicine
Sources (2)

via Wikidata · CC0

~13 min read

Encyclopedic overview

25 sections
Contents
  • Types
  • Dermal neurofibroma
  • Anatomy
  • Age of onset
  • Medical complications
  • Plexiform neurofibroma
  • Anatomy
  • Age of onset
  • Medical complications
  • Cause
  • Neurofibromin 1 gene
  • Schwann cells
  • Loss of tumor suppressor function
  • Diagnosis
  • Treatments
  • Dermal neurofibroma
  • Plexiform neurofibroma
  • Surgery
  • Radiation
  • Medications
  • No effect
  • Research
  • See also
  • References
  • External links

A neurofibroma is a benign nerve-sheath tumor in the peripheral nervous system. In 90% of cases, they are found as stand-alone tumors (solitary neurofibroma, solitary nerve sheath tumor or sporadic neurofibroma), while the remainder are found in persons with neurofibromatosis type I (NF1), an autosomal-dominant genetically inherited disease. They can result in a range of symptoms from physical disfiguration and pain to cognitive disability.

Neurofibromas arise from nonmyelinating-type Schwann cells that exhibit biallelic inactivation of the NF1 gene that codes for the protein neurofibromin. This protein is responsible for regulating the RAS-mediated cell growth signaling pathway. In contrast to schwannomas, another type of tumor arising from Schwann cells, neurofibromas incorporate many additional types of cells and structural elements in addition to Schwann cells, making it difficult to identify and understand all the mechanisms through which they originate and develop.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “neurofibroma” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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