What is it about?
Back in 1993, a 5-year-old boy was killed by a hitherto unknown cancer. But he left us clues to follow up. Recalling 2 similar patients reported previously, I and my colleagues in Queen Mary Hospital distinguished it from other known cancers and described its clinical and pathological features and pinned down the chromosomal changes that characterized the disease. We called it Mediastinal Carcinoma with Chromosomal Translocation (15;19), because these were what we knew at that time. In 2003, the NUT oncogene on chromosome 15 was identified. The disease was then called NUT midline carcinoma because the cancer occurred mostly in the midline of the body. In 2015, the WHO classification of tumours renamed it as NUT carcinoma as the disease can occur elsewhere. Sadly, there is still no effective treatment despite 27 years have passed.
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Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The origin of the cancer cell is still not known. An effective treatment for the disease is still pending. The original report, however, was the very important first step that bring the disease into perspective for further study.
Perspectives
There is no boundary to new discoveries. Patients can be your best teacher. Look. Listen. Explore carefully. Professor Lau is good at empowering his junior staff. Professor Kwong can make you stand out bold. As the most junior member, I could not have asked for a better team to work with.
Dr Anselm C Lee
Mount Elizabeth Hospital
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Disseminated mediastinal carcinoma with chromosomal translocation (15;19). A distinctive clinicopathologic syndrome, Cancer, October 1993, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/1097-0142(19931001)72:73.0.co;2-u.
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