Clinical and biological behaviour of vestibular Schwannomas: Signaling cascades involved in vestibular schwannoma resemble molecular and cellular mechanisms of injury induced Schwann cell de-differentiation.

Vestibular Schwannoma (VS) is a slow-growing, intracranial extra-axial benign tumor that develops from the vestibular nerve, or very rarely from the cochlear nerve. The tumor is located along the course of the nerve that is, between the inner ear and the brainstem in the internal auditory canal and the cerebello-pontine angle (CPA). This review summarizes the current knowledge on clinical and molecular aspects of vestibular schwannoma development with special emphasis on cellular de-differentiation of Schwann cells into plastic neural crest stem cell-like phenotype as the potentially involved cellular and molecular mechanism.
Source: Head and Neck Oncology - Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: research