Abstract
Pleuropulmonary blastoma (PPB), the most common primary malignant neoplasm of the lung in childhood, occurs in the same early age group (0-6 years) as the other more common solid tumors such as neuroblastoma and Wilms tumor. The tumor begins as a cystic lung lesion with the potential over a period of 3-5 years to progress to a high grade multipatterned primitive sarcoma in the absence of a malignant epithelial component. Several years after its initial description as a unique clinicopathologic entity, this and other tumors appeared to have a familial predilection which was later confirmed with the discovery of a heterozygous germline mutation in DICER1 whose protein is a member of ribonuclease III family of enzymes. It is estimated that 75%-80% of children with a PPB have the germline mutation. The other notable finding from our studies is the identification of a family of extrapulmonary neoplasms, including cystic nephroma and Sertoli-Leydig cell tumor of the ovary as two examples, also with DICER1 mutations.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 206-210 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Missouri Medicine |
Volume | 116 |
Issue number | 3 |
State | Published - May 1 2019 |