ArticleBMC cancer2023
Comprehensive analysis of cancer of unknown primary and recommendation of a histological and immunohistochemical diagnostic strategy from China.
Article in BMC cancer, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cancer of unknown primary: the evolution of tissue of origin identification in the artificial intelligence era.Biomarker research · 2026Review
- Integrating artificial intelligence into cancers of unknown primary diagnosis and treatment.iScience · 2026Review
- Analysis of prognostic factors and construction of a nomogram for patients with brain metastases from cancer of unknown primary based on the SEER database.Discover oncology · 2026Article
- Analysis of cancer stem cell mechanism and immune profiling in breast cancer of unknown primary.Clinical and experimental medicine · 2026Article
- Prolonged Diagnostic Latency and Long-term Surveillance in Anti-Ri Antibody-positive Opsoclonus-myoclonus Syndrome with Carcinoma of Unknown Primary.Internal medicine (Tokyo, Japan) · 2026Article
- Diagnosis and management of axillary lymph node metastasis from an unknown primary carcinoma: a case report.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Article
- Mutational landscape and DNA methylation-based classification of squamous cell carcinoma and urothelial carcinoma.Clinical epigenetics · 2025Article
- Breast cancer metastasis to the reproductive system: Report of 2 cases and literature review: A case report.Molecular and clinical oncology · 2025Article
- Clinical characteristics and survival analysis of cancer of unknown primary.Oncology letters · 2025Article
- Diagnostic Utility of a 90-Gene Expression Assay (Canhelp-Origin) for Patients with Metastatic Cancer with an Unclear or Unknown Diagnosis.Molecular diagnosis & therapy · 2025Article
- Primary mucinous carcinoma of the skin with co-expression of TRPS1 and GATA3: a case report.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Article
- Adenocarcinoma of unknown primary presenting with congestive heart failure in a middle-aged Ethiopian woman: a case report.Journal of medical case reports · 2024Article
- A case of laparoscopic lymphadenectomy for adenocarcinoma of unknown primary incidentally detected as a solitary enlarged lymph node along the common hepatic artery.Surgical case reports · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPrevious studies on cancer of unknown primary (CUP) mainly focus on treatment and prognosis in western populations and lacked clinical evaluation of different IHC markers, so this study aimed to evaluate characteristics of CUP and recommend a diagnostic strategy from a single center in China. METHODS AND
resultsData of 625 patients with CUP were retrospectively collected and reviewed. The patients ranged in age from 20 to 91 years, with a female-to-male ratio of 1.3:1. The predominant histological type was poor or undifferentiated adenocarcinomas (308; 49.3%). The results of Canhelp-Origin molecular testing for the identification of the tissue of origin in 262 of 369 patients (71.0%) were considered predictable (similarity score > 45), with the most common predicted primary tumor site being the breast (57, 21.8%). Unpredictable molecular results correlated with more aggressive clinical parameters and poor survival. Thee positivity rates of several targeted antibodies (GATA3, GCDFP15, TTF1, Napsin A, and PAX8), based on the clinically predicted site, were lower than those reported for the corresponding primary tumors. Nonetheless, TRPS1 and INSM1 were reliable markers of predicted breast carcinoma (75.0%) and neuroendocrine tumors (83.3%), respectively. P16 expression, as well as HPV and EBER testing contributed significantly to the diagnosis of squamous cell carcinomas. Survival analysis revealed that older ages (> 57), ≥ 3 metastatic sites, non-squamous cell carcinomas, bone/liver/lung metastases, unpredictable molecular results, and palliative treatment correlated with poor overall survival.
conclusionsWe recommend a CUP diagnostic strategy involving the use of targeted antibody panels as per histological findings that is potentially applicable in clinical practice. The markers TRPS1, INSM1, and P16 expression, as well as HPV and EBER testing are particularly valuable in this aspect. Molecular testing is also predictive of survival rates.
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