[Cancer of Unknown Primary. Epidemiology and Pathogenesis]

Overview

Journal Radiologe

Specialty Radiology

Date 2014 Jan 18

PMID 24435156

Citations 4

Authors

H Loffler

K Neben

A Kramer

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Definition: The term cancer of unknown primary (CUP) describes by definition epithelial malignancies for which no primary tumor can be found after primary diagnostics have been performed.

Epidemiology: The CUP syndrome constitutes 2-3% of all fatal cases of malignancies in both men and women. The proportion of women has increased in parallel to the increase of tobacco consumption in women.

Pathogenesis: The most frequent origin appears to lie in the lungs or upper abdominal organs, while notable differences can be found between older autopsy findings and recent gene expression data with respect to identified primary tumors or tissue assignation. The fact that a primary tumor cannot be identified is probably based on various reasons: a complete regression of a primary tumor in isolated cases seems to be just as plausible as the misclassification of a primary tumor as a metastasis.

Conclusion: In combination with the fact that a primary tumor cannot be identified by autopsy in more than 20 % of cases, the important conclusion can be drawn that curative approaches seem appropriate for localized CUP cases.

Citing Articles

Does Cancer of Unknown Primary (CUP) Truly Exist as a Distinct Cancer Entity?.

Bochtler T, Kramer A Front Oncol. 2019; 9:402.

PMID: 31165045 PMC: 6534107. DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2019.00402.

Precision medicine based on epigenomics: the paradigm of carcinoma of unknown primary.

Moran S, Martinez-Cardus A, Boussios S, Esteller M Nat Rev Clin Oncol. 2017; 14(11):682-694.

PMID: 28675165 DOI: 10.1038/nrclinonc.2017.97.

Patients with cancer of unknown primary: a retrospective analysis of 223 patients with adenocarcinoma or undifferentiated carcinoma.

Loffler H, Puthenparambil J, Hielscher T, Neben K, Kramer A Dtsch Arztebl Int. 2014; 111(27-28):481-7.

PMID: 25138727 PMC: 4187410. DOI: 10.3238/arztebl.2014.0481.

Management of neck metastases of unknown primary origin united in two European centers.

Straetmans J, Vent J, Lacko M, Speel E, Huebbers C, Semrau R Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2014; 272(1):195-205.

PMID: 24615648 DOI: 10.1007/s00405-014-2934-5.

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