title: Metastasis of carcinoma of the lung to a carotid body paraganglioma.
abstract: Tumour-to-tumour metastasis is a rare phenomenon, but has been described in the literature in just over 100 cases. It can be particularly puzzling for the reporting pathologists, when encountered unexpectedly in a tumour showing abrupt transition from the usual morphology to another unusual pattern. The literature reports a variety of combinations with carcinoma-to-carcinoma being the most common; and renal cell carcinomas appear to the most common recipient tumours with common donor tumours being breast, lung and renal cell carcinomas. The authors report a case of poorly-differentiated lung carcinoma metastasising into a carotid body paraganglioma. Our case is unique and in our knowledge the first described case of carotid body paraganglioma with metastasis from a lung primary. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report of this interesting biological phenomenon in this combination.
authors.affiliation: Cellular Pathology Department, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. yvonne.bury@nhs.net
authors.forename: Yvonne
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bury
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Green
authors.forename: Mona
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jain
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Moor
mesh_terms: D001706:Biopsy; D001999:Bronchoscopy; D002118:Calcium / Q000097:blood; D002345:Carotid Body Tumor / Q000556:secondary*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007828:Laryngoscopy; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014826:Vocal Cord Paralysis / Q000175:diagnosis
chemical_list: D002118:Calcium