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Neurofibromas and Histogenesis

Arch Dermatol. 2000;136:1257-1258.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

I HAVE been working on the neurofibromatoses, neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) in particular, for 28 years and I have never been happy calling a neurofibroma a tumor.^1-4 There is something more to it than that. I often say, let's just call it a mass. Then, keying off that word, I wondered whether an editorial about a mass should be written rather by a priest. I pondered further and realized that this query is not fatuous. All too often a mass is automatically construed to be a tumor when it is not. Thus, I begin this piece by reminding colleagues that a mass is not necessarily a tumor.

The term "mass" has many meanings important for priests, philosophers, politicians, sociologists, physicists, physicians, and tumor biologists. From the medical perspective, I see it as a usefully neutral term, not necessarily ascribing neoplastic or oncogenic properties: it is not necessarily a tumor. My . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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Seija-Liisa Karvonen, Matti Kallioinen, Heli Ylä-Outinen, Minna Pöyhönen, Aarne Oikarinen, and Juha Peltonen
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ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT