Thyroid Cancer, Neuroendocrine Tumor, Adrenal Adenoma, and Other Tumors in a Patient With a Germline Mutation.

CONTEXT

Multiple tumors in the same patient suggest a genetic predisposition. Here, we report a patient who presented with several unusual types of malignant and benign tumors, presumably due to a pathogenic germline mutation.

CASE

A 69-year-old woman presented with a 2-year history of abdominal pain and diarrhea. A computed tomography scan of the abdomen revealed a gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumor (GiNET) with liver metastases and a nonfunctional benign adrenal adenoma. Bilateral large lung nodules were thought to be also metastases from the GiNET but turned out to be differentiated thyroid cancer metastases, which later progressed to anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) and led to the patient's demise. A right sphenoid wing meningioma causing partial hypopituitarism was diagnosed during her evaluation. A mammogram and a breast ultrasound revealed a 0.3-cm left breast nodule. Due to the multiplicity of her tumors, whole exome sequencing was performed. This revealed a previously described deletion mutation causing a frameshift and truncation (NM_000534c.1258delC, p.His420Ilefs*22) but no other pathogenic variant in other cancer genes. DNA isolated from the ATC tumor tissue showed loss of heterozygosity of the same mutation, highly suggestive of its pathogenic role in thyroid cancer and presumably other tumors.

CONCLUSION

This case reports several tumors including thyroid cancer, GiNET, adrenal adenoma, meningioma, and breast nodule, likely due to the mutation found in this patient.