What does unknown primary cancer mean?
Key Points. Carcinoma of unknown primary (CUP) is a rare disease in which malignant (cancer) cells are found in the body but the place the cancer began is not known. Sometimes the primary cancer is never found. The signs and symptoms of CUP are different, depending on where the cancer has spread in the body.
How common is cancer of unknown origin?
Thanks to better diagnostic tests, though, they are becoming less common. Cancer of unknown primary is a disease that has metastasized (spread) from another part of the body. The place where it began, also called the primary site, is unknown. These cases make up about 2% to 5% of cancers diagnosed in the United States.
What is the most common malignancy associated with an initial presentation of intracranial metastasis from a previously unknown primary?
In a retrospective analysis including 63 adult patients who presented with brain metastasis, the lung was the most common primary site (Figures 2 & 3) [8]. However, there were unexpected primary sites in several patients in this group, for example, breast cancer (Figure 1), skin cancer and renal cell cancer.
What does cup stand for in cancer?
A case in which cancer cells are found in the body, but the place where the cells first started growing (the origin or primary site) cannot be determined. Also called cancer of unknown primary origin and carcinoma of unknown primary.
What stage is cup cancer?
So, all CUPs are at least a stage II, and most of them are stage III or IV. The most recent American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system, effective January 2018, applies to cancer that is found in the lymph nodes of the neck but the primary cancer has not been found.
How long can you live with cup?
People diagnosed with CUP are a diverse group, and prognosis, which is the chance of recovery, varies widely. When all CUP types are looked at together, average survival time is about 9 to 12 months after diagnosis.
How is cup diagnosed?
Carcinoma of unknown primary is a diagnosis given when doctors aren’t able to locate where a cancer began. Most often, cancer is diagnosed when doctors discover the spot where the cancer began (primary tumor). If the cancer has spread (metastasized), those sites might be discovered, too.
Are CUPs curable?
Although most cases of CUP can’t be cured, treatment can keep some cancers under control for months or years.
What does CUPs mean medically?
Cancer of Unknown Primary (CUP) is hidden cancer. The term is applied when a patient is diagnosed as having cancer which has spread (metastatic cancer), but the origin of the cancer cannot be identified (through imaging or pathology).
Are cups curable?
What is cancer of unknown primary origin (Cup)?
This is called cancer of unknown primary origin (CUP). Patients may be diagnosed with cancer of unknown primary origin if the primary tumor is too small to be identified with routine imaging tests, it regresses (disappears) before a secondary tumor arises, or the secondary tumor has several possible primary sites.
What is a malignancy of unknown primary origin (Muo)?
If tests show that you have a cancer that has spread, but your doctors can’t find the primary tumour, it’s called a malignancy of unknown primary origin (MUO). You then have some initial tests to try to find out the primary cancer.
What does Cup mean in medical terms?
Cancer of unknown primary (CUP) means that your doctor is not sure where the cancer started. They have found a secondary cancer but have not been able to find the primary tumour. A secondary cancer happens when cancer cells separate from a primary site and spread to another part of the body.
Is it possible to find the exact origin of cancer?
When the types of cancer that respond best to treatment have been ruled out by tests, it usually becomes less important to find the exact origin or cancer type. But even if the primary site is not known, treatment can still be successful.
