Spinal Cord Compression Secondary to Metastatic Sinonasal Undifferentiated Carcinoma

Sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma (SNUC) is a rare malignancy of the upper airways and anterior skull base that carries a poor prognosis. The tumor is known to be invasive into the surrounding structures of the skull base and brain. To date, there is only one existing case report documenting drop...

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Published inCase reports in oncology Vol. 10; no. 2; pp. 596 - 604
Main Authors Wang, Arthur, Wainwright, John V., Amin, Anubhav G., Vail, Eric, Silverstein, Rachel, Das, Kaushik
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel, Switzerland S. Karger AG 07.07.2017
Karger Publishers
Subjects
Antigens
Bone surgery
Cardiovascular disease
Case Report
Case reports
Gangrene
Head & neck cancer
Medical imaging
Metastasis
Neuroblastoma
NMR
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Pathology
Patients
Sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma
Spinal cord
Spinal cord compression
Tumors
New York
United States > US
Sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma
Spinal cord compression
Metastasis
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Summary:Sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma (SNUC) is a rare malignancy of the upper airways and anterior skull base that carries a poor prognosis. The tumor is known to be invasive into the surrounding structures of the skull base and brain. To date, there is only one existing case report documenting drop metastasis to the intradural extramedullary spinal cord. To the best of our knowledge, we present the second case of metastatic SNUC to the spine. This report describes a 59-year-old male with a history of head and neck SNUC who presented with thoracic back pain and bilateral lower extremity paresis. Neuroimaging demonstrated an extradural thoracic mass with severe spinal cord compression. The patient underwent thoracic laminectomy and fusion for decompression of the spinal cord and internal stabilization. The pathology returned as SNUC. The patient was subsequently lost to follow-up from our institution. Metastatic SNUC is rare. We discuss the relevant clinical imaging and review the literature. Such a malignancy portends a very poor prognosis.
ISSN:1662-6575
1662-6575
DOI:10.1159/000477845