Pleuropulmonary Blastoma: Evolution of an Entity as an Entry into a Familial Tumor Predisposition Syndrome

Abstract

Pleuropulmonary blastoma (PPB) is the most common primary malignant neoplasm of the lung in children. Like other solid dysontogenic neoplasms, this tumor typically presents before 7 years of age. The earliest manifestation is the presence of a lung cyst(s), which is usually recognized in the first year of life and is difficult to differentiate on the basis of imaging studies from nonneoplastic cysts of early childhood. From a multilocular cyst, PPB has the potential to progress to a high-grade multipatterned primitive sarcoma. More than 65% of all affected children have a heterozygous germline mutation in DICER1. The DICER1 PPB familial tumor predisposition syndrome is initially recognized in most cases on the basis of PPB alone but also by several other unique and characteristic extrapulmonary tumors, including pediatric cystic nephroma, nasal chondromesenchymal hamartoma, nodular lesions of the thyroid, embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma of the cervix, and ciliary body medulloepithelioma.