Segmental neurofibromatosis type 2: discriminating two hit from four hit in a patient presenting multiple schwannomas confined to one limb

Background A clinical overlap exists between mosaic Neurofibromatosis Type 2 and sporadic Schwannomatosis conditions. In these cases a molecular analysis of tumors is recommended for a proper genetic diagnostics. This analysis is challenged by the fact that schwannomas in both conditions bear a somatic double inactivation of the NF2 gene. However, SMARCB1-associated schwannomas follow a four-hit, three-step model, in which both alleles of SMARCB1 and NF2 genes are inactivated in the tumor, with one of the steps being always the loss of a big part of chromosome 22 involving both loci.