National Institutes of Health
- The primary NIH organization for research on Neurofibromatosis is the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Neurofibromatosis is a genetic disorder of the nervous system. It mainly affects how nerve cells form and grow. It causes tumors to grow on nerves. You can get neurofibromatosis from your parents, or it can happen because of a mutation (change) in your genes. Once you have it, you can pass it along to your children.
There are three types of neurofibromatosis:
There is no cure. Treatment is aimed at controlling symptoms. Depending on the type of disease and how bad it is, treatment may include surgery to remove tumors, radiation therapy and medicines.
NIH: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)