Neurofibromatosis and dysphagia. Coloured X-ray of a 24 year old man with a large neurofibroma, a benign (non-cancerous) tumour in his chest affecting his swallowing. Prior to the X-ray the patient swallowed a barium meal to highlight the oesophagus (red and orange). The tumour has caused the oesophagus to move to the right (left on X-ray) and narrowed it, leading to the barium meal pooling above the tumour and passing around it, and the patient having difficulty swallowing (dysphagia). Neurofibromatosis, a genetic disease, causes the development of multiple neurofibromas which develop from Schwann cells that surround nerves. The neurofibromas occur most often on the skin, but occasionally inside the body as here. Treatment is by surgical removal of the tumour.