NUT midline carcinoma in a young pregnant female: a case report

The NUT midline carcinoma is a rare tumor mostly reported in the midline of upper aerodigestive tract and mediastinum. Children as well as adolescents are affected without a gender distribution. A standard treatment is not established. So far, there exists no reported case of a pregnant female suffering from NUT midline carcinoma with musculoskeletal manifestation.

A 34-year-old woman was referred to our outpatient clinic by the general practitioner during her 31st week of pregnancy suffering from shoulder pain and dyspnea. So far, dyspnea was interpreted as a typical pregnancy-related symptom. However, a chest X-ray showed a tumor mass in the right lung in close relation to the scapula. Further examinations found metastases in different areas of the body. No pregnancy-related complications were detected by obstetric examination. After an interdisciplinary perinatal case discussion, cesarean section was directly followed by an open biopsy of the right side scapula tumor lesion. A NUT midline carcinoma was diagnosed by immunohistochemistry. Due to disseminated tumor disease in multiple non-resectable locations, a palliative systemical chemotherapy was started by the oncological outpatient clinic.

This report presents the case of the very rare NUT midline carcinoma under pregnancy which made interdisciplinary case discussions indispensable for therapy planning.