Exploring the biology of cancer of unknown primary: breakthroughs and drawbacks

摘要: Background Cancer of unknown primary (CUP) ranks among the ten most common malignancies worldwide. Cancer presents as disseminated disease, has a dismal prognosis and remains diagnosis exclusion. The natural history biology disease is poorly understood, efforts are focused on identifying specific ‘CUP signature’. Materials methods We collected analysed all published research in CUP from 1974 till present (Medline, Embase, ASCO ESMO Congresses). Results Current scientific evidence suggests that aneuploidy karyotype changes frequent, while more subtle molecular aberrations, such epidermal growth factor receptor family proteins, cKit/PDGFR frequently overexpressed, although without prognostic significance. Loss function tumour suppressor genes, active angiogenesis, hypoxic genetic programme mesenchymal transitory phenotype have been reported may be indicative unfavourable prognosis. Molecular pathway analyses identified various biomolecules impacting survival (pAKT, pMAPK, c-Met, p21 pPRS6). Finally, circulating cells recently frequent phenomenon CUP. Conclusions Overall, advances understanding weak application gene expression profiling failed to identify an yet elusive signature’. MicroRNA, epigenetic proteomic studies warranted better characterize biological profile unravel its mystery.