Malignancies of the Pediatric Lower Respiratory Tract

Pediatric thoracic mass lesions: Beyond the common

“…The supporting interstitial cells also contain abundant glycogen and are positive for vimentin. There are also smooth muscle cells beneath the epithelium with features resembling terminal bronchiole-alveolar ducts resemble immature fetal lung at 20-24 weeks of gestation [38,39]. Prenatal US shows a well-circumscribed, unifocal, predominantly solid lung mass with posterior acoustic enhancement (Fig.…”

“…Findings on postnatal CXR are non-specific and include a lobar opacity with mediastinal shift [2]. Postnatal CT reveals a low attenuation mass without chest wall invasion [39]. Differential diagnosis include solid (type 3) congenital pulmonary airway malformation, congenital peribronchial myofibroblastic tumor and infantile pulmonary teratoid tumor [39].…”

“…NUT carcinoma (formerly NUT midline carcinoma) is a highly aggressive, poorly differentiated subtype of squamous carcinoma characterized by a translocation resulting in NUT oncogene overexpression [2,4,39,63]. It affects male and female patients equally, with a wide age distribution [63,64].…”

“…It affects male and female patients equally, with a wide age distribution [63,64]. NUT carcinoma most commonly arises from the midline head/neck or mediastinum [64].The presenting symptoms are nonspecific and vary depending on the primary site of tumor or the presence of metastases [39]. Pleuritic chest pain, weight loss, nonproductive cough and shortness of breath are common when NUT carcinoma arises from thorax [65].…”