Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2019 May 1;13(1):132.
doi: 10.1186/s13256-019-2052-5.

Carcinoid tumor of lung and BRCA mutation: a case report

Mohammed Z Shariff  1 , Diana Curras-Martin  2 , Natasha Campbell  2 , Varsha Gupta  2 , John D Mikhail  2 , Michael J Levitt  2 , Mohammad A Hossain  2
Affiliations
Case Reports

Carcinoid tumor of lung and BRCA mutation: a case report

Mohammed Z Shariff et al. J Med Case Rep. .

Abstract

Background: A BRCA mutation is a mutation in either of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, which are tumor suppressor genes. Hundreds of different types of mutations in these genes have been identified, some of which have been determined to be harmful, whereas others have no proven impact. BRCA mutations are well known to be associated with breast, uterine, and ovarian cancers along with some nongynecological malignancies involving the peritoneum, prostate, pancreas, skin, stomach, and rectum. However, there are no reported cases to date of an association between carcinoid tumors and a BRCA mutation.

Case presentation: Our patient was a 33-year-old White woman with BRCA2 mutation who presented to her primary care physician for evaluation of abdominal pain. She underwent computed tomography of her abdomen and pelvis, which showed an incidental finding of infrahilar mass along with renal stones. Further workup with bronchoscopy and biopsy of the mass confirmed it to be a carcinoid tumor of the lung.

Conclusions: No literature thus far exists describing a connection between BRCA mutations and carcinoid tumors. Early diagnosis and prompt treatment of carcinoid tumors are proven to have impact on survival and prognosis of these patients.

Keywords: BRCA mutation; Carcinoid tumor; Infrahilar mass.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report and any accompanying images. A copy of the written consent is available for review by the Editor-in-Chief of this journal.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Computed tomographic scan of the chest showing a small lung nodule around the right hilum (arrow)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Histopathological slide of the right lung nodule demonstrating typical carcinoid tumor of the lung
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Quaedvlieg PF, Visser O, Lamers CB, et al. Epidemiology and survival in patients with carcinoid disease in The Netherlands. An epidemiological study with 2391 patients. Ann Oncol. 2001;12:1295. doi: 10.1023/A:1012272314550. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Modlin IM, Lye KD, Kidd M. A 5-decade analysis of 13,715 carcinoid tumors. Cancer. 2003;97:934. doi: 10.1002/cncr.11105. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hemminki K, Li X. Incidence trends and risk factors of carcinoid tumors: a nationwide epidemiologic study from Sweden. Cancer. 2001;92:2204. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(20011015)92:8<2204::AID-CNCR1564>3.0.CO;2-R. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hauso O, Gustafsson BI, Kidd M, et al. Neuroendocrine tumor epidemiology: contrasting Norway and North America. Cancer. 2008;113:2655. doi: 10.1002/cncr.23883. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Beasley MB, Thunnissen FB, Brambilla E, et al. Pulmonary atypical carcinoid: predictors of survival in 106 cases. Hum Pathol. 2000;31:1255. doi: 10.1053/hupa.2000.19294. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types