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CASE REPORT article

Front. Oncol.
Sec. Head and Neck Cancer
Volume 14 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2024.1412070

Case report: Long term remission of metastatic sinonasal NUT carcinoma after palliative radiotherapy and immunotherapy in an elderly patient

Provisionally accepted
Justin Kar Wai Ng Justin Kar Wai Ng 1*Edwin Chun Yin Wong Edwin Chun Yin Wong 1Tommy Chun Yan So Tommy Chun Yan So 1Raiden Tak Siu Wong Raiden Tak Siu Wong 2
  • 1 Department of Clinical Oncology, Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
  • 2 Department of Clinical Pathology, Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    NUT carcinoma (NC) is an extremely rare, aggressive malignancy characterized by chromosomal rearrangements in the NUTM1 (nuclear protein in testis) gene. It usually affects younger patients with a median age of diagnosis at 23 years old. The mainstay of treatment consists of combination chemotherapy, surgical resection, and high dose radiation. However, prognosis remains dismal with reported median overall survival of 6.7 months ( ). Literature reporting on use of immunotherapy in head and neck NC is limited. Prolonged remission without aggressive multimodality therapy is rare. We report a case of a 87-year-old woman with metastatic sinonasal NC treated with palliative radiotherapy and pembrolizumab who achieved sustained response 2 years from diagnosis.

    Keywords: Sinonasal malignances, NUT carcinoma (NC), Radiotherapy, immuotherapy, NUTM1 gene rearrangement

    Received: 04 Apr 2024; Accepted: 13 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Ng, Wong, So and Wong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Justin Kar Wai Ng, Department of Clinical Oncology, Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China

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