Papers of the Week

Schwannomas are mostly benign tumors arising from the nerve sheath. These tumors can be found anywhere in the body. Depending on their locations, they may cause compressive symptoms as well as cosmetic or functional defects. Ancient schwannomas, the rare variant of schwannomas, are the slow-growing tumors characterized with cystic necrotic degeneration areas in the neoplastic tissue. Ancient schwannomas rarely occur in the spinal canal, they are particularly unusual in the thoracic spine. Herein we present a 66-year-old woman with chronic back pain who is detected a cystic mass in her thoracic spine by magnetic resonance imaging and is diagnosed with ancient schwannoma by histological examination.