Mediastinum
Soft tissue tumors
Neuroblastoma
Author: Hanni Gulwani, M.B.B.S.
Topic Completed: 1 December 2012
Minor changes: 20 November 2019
Copyright: 2003-2019, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.
PubMed Search: Neuroblastoma[TI] mediastinum
Table of Contents
Definition / general | Clinical features | Laboratory | Case reports | Gross description | Microscopic (histologic) description | Microscopic (histologic) images | Positive stains | Negative stains | Electron microscopy descriptionCite this page: Gulwani H. Neuroblastoma. PathologyOutlines.com website. https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/mediastinumneuroblastoma.html. Accessed March 4th, 2021.
Definition / general
- Usually primary tumors of posterior mediastinum associated with paraspinal nerve roots; rarely represents metastases to mediastinum
- Symptoms due to compression of nerve roots or esophagus
- May have opsoclonus myoclonus (dancing feet and eyes) due to paraneoplastic syndrome
Clinical features
- Young children, usually < 1 year
- Tumors of thymus and anterior mediastinum are associated with syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone
- May relapse in central nervous system
Laboratory
- Elevated HMA and VMA
- Hyponatremia
Case reports
- 64 year old man with surgically resected neuroblastoma in superior mediastinum (Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg 2011;13:220)
Gross description
- Partially encapsulated, infiltrative, pink-gray fleshy cut surface, hemorrhage, necrosis, calcification
Microscopic (histologic) description
- Small round blue cell tumor with sheets of monomorphic cells with scant eosinophilic cytoplasm, uniform chromatin, minimal nucleoli
- Often brisk mitotic activity
- Necrosis, dystrophic calcification, arborizing vasculature
- Variable fibrillary eosinophilic intercellular matrix
- Variable ganglion cells
Microscopic (histologic) images
Images hosted on other servers:
Various images
Positive stains
- CD57 / Leu7, synaptophysin, variable vimentin and neurofilament
Electron microscopy description
- Complex, long, interdigitating cytoplasmic processes with microtubules
- May have synaptic vesicles and scant neurosecretory granules
- No / minimal basal lamina, no / minimal intermediate filaments
