Gynecologic large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma: A review

Abstract

Large cell neuroendocrine carcinomas (LCNEC) are rare, aggressive high-grade neuroendocrine neoplasms within the neuroendocrine cell lineage spectrum. This manuscript provides a detailed review of published literature on LCNEC of gynecological origin. We performed a PubMed search for material available on gynecologic LCNEC. We analyzed 104 unique cases of gynecologic LCNECs, of which 45 were cervical primary, 45 were ovarian, 13 were uterine, and 1 was vaginal. A total of 45 cases of cervical LCNEC were identified with a median age of 36 years. Median overall survival was 16 months. We identified 45 ovarian LCNEC cases in the published literature with a median age of 54 years. Median overall survival was 8 months. 13 LCNEC cases of uterine origin were identified; 12 out of 13 were of endometrial origin and the median age was 71 years. The majority of patients presented with Stage III/IV disease (stages I–IV were 31%, 8%, 38%, and 23%, respectively). Gynecologic LCNEC is an aggressive malignancy. Our current understanding of the disease biology is very limited. Efforts are required to better understand the genomic and molecular characterizations of gynecological LCNEC. These efforts will elucidate the underlying oncogenic pathways and driver mutations as potential targets.