(ganglioneuroblastoma, malignant) A malignant neoplasm characterized by the presence of neuroblastic and ganglion cells and a stroma with Schwannian differentiation.

A moderately malignant neoplasm composed of primitive neuroectodermal cells dispersed in myxomatous or fibrous stroma intermixed with mature ganglion cells. It may undergo transformation into a neuroblastoma. It arises from the sympathetic trunk or less frequently from the adrenal medulla, cerebral cortex, and other locations. Cervical ganglioneuroblastomas may be associated with HORNER SYNDROME and the tumor may occasionally secrete vasoactive intestinal peptide, resulting in chronic diarrhea.

A malignant neuroblastic tumor characterized by the presence of neuroblastic cells, ganglion cells, and a stroma with Schwannian differentiation constituting more than fifty-percent of the tumor volume. There are two histologic subtypes identified: ganglioneuroblastoma, intermixed and ganglioneuroblastoma, nodular.

Ganglioneuroblastoma is a rare type of primitive neuroectodermal tumor (PNET; see this term), affecting almost exclusively infants and young children under the age of 10, usually occurring in the posterior mediastinum, adrenal medulla and extra-adrenal retroperitoneum (but sometimes in the neck and pelvis), with metastasis most often presenting in the bones, and characterized clinically by pain, stridor, shortness of breath, peripheral neurological signs, superior vena cava syndrome and congenital Horner syndrome, depending on the location of the tumor.