title: Case report: an unusual case of adrenal neuroblastoma in pregnancy.
abstract: Neuroblastomas are the fourth most common malignancy of childhood and account for most adrenal tumors in children. However, they are rarely reported in adults. We present herein an extremely rare case of adrenal neuroblastoma occurring in a 25-year-old woman during her first trimester of pregnancy. She had a spontaneous abortion secondary to chorioamnionitis and she was operated on for an "incidentaloma." Her tumor was curatively resected. She presented with right lower quadrant abdominal pain 26 months after her operation and there was evidence of local tumor recurrence without metastasis. Adult adrenal neuroblastoma is an uncommon malignancy and, to our knowledge, there was no case of this tumor occurring in pregnancy ever described in the English literature. The case presentation is followed by a general discussion with an emphasis on the diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of neuroblastoma and its association with pregnancy.
authors.affiliation: Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. rifaatmarwan@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Marwan M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Refaat
authors.forename: Shereene Z
authors.initials: SZ
authors.lastname: Idriss
authors.forename: Lawrence S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Blaszkowsky
mesh_terms: D000022:Abortion, Spontaneous / Q000209:etiology; D000310:Adrenal Gland Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D000315:Adrenalectomy; D000328:Adult; D002821:Chorioamnionitis / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009447:Neuroblastoma / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D011247:Pregnancy; D011252:Pregnancy Complications, Neoplastic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D011261:Pregnancy Trimester, First; D012307:Risk Factors