Molecular Features

NUT midline carcinoma is a very rare and aggressive malignancy genetically defined by rearrangements of the NUT gene. In most cases (75%), the NUT gene on chromosome 15q14 is fused with the BRD4 gene on chromosome 19p13, creating chimeric genes that encode the BRD-NUT fusion proteins. In the remaining cases, NUT is fused to BRD3 on chromosome 9q34 or to NSD3 on chromosome 8p11;[1] these tumors are termed NUT-variant.[2]

References:

1. French CA, Rahman S, Walsh EM, et al.: NSD3-NUT fusion oncoprotein in NUT midline carcinoma: implications for a novel oncogenic mechanism. Cancer Discov 4 (8): 928-41, 2014.
2. French CA: NUT midline carcinoma. Cancer Genet Cytogenet 203 (1): 16-20, 2010.

Clinical Presentation and Outcome

Childhood midline tract carcinomas (NUT midline carcinomas) arise in midline epithelial structures, typically mediastinum and upper aerodigestive tract, and present as very aggressive undifferentiated carcinomas, with or without squamous differentiation.[1,2] Although the original description of this neoplasm was made in children and young adults, individuals of all ages can be affected.[3] A retrospective series with clinicopathologic correlation found that the median age at diagnosis of 54 patients was 16 years (range, 0.1–78 years).[4]

The outcome is very poor, with a median survival of less than 1 year. Preliminary data suggest that NUT-variant tumors may have a more protracted course.[1,3]

References:

1. French CA, Kutok JL, Faquin WC, et al.: Midline carcinoma of children and young adults with NUT rearrangement. J Clin Oncol 22 (20): 4135-9, 2004.
2. Chau NG, Hurwitz S, Mitchell CM, et al.: Intensive treatment and survival outcomes in NUT midline carcinoma of the head and neck. Cancer 122 (23): 3632-3640, 2016.
3. French CA: NUT midline carcinoma. Cancer Genet Cytogenet 203 (1): 16-20, 2010.
4. Bauer DE, Mitchell CM, Strait KM, et al.: Clinicopathologic features and long-term outcomes of NUT midline carcinoma. Clin Cancer Res 18 (20): 5773-9, 2012.

Treatment of Childhood Midline Tract Carcinoma

Treatment options for childhood midline tract carcinoma include the following:

1. Chemotherapy.
2. Surgery.
3. Radiation therapy.

Treatment of childhood midline tract carcinoma involving the NUT gene (NUT midline carcinoma) has included a multimodal approach with systemic chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation therapy. Cisplatin, taxanes, and alkylating agents have been used with some success; however, while early response is common, tumor progression occurs early in the course of the disease.[1]; [2][Level of evidence: 3iiiB] In a report from the NUT Midline Carcinoma Registry, 40 patients with primary tumors in the head and neck were evaluable. Two-year overall survival was 30%. The three long-term survivors (35, 72, and 78 months) underwent primary gross-total resection and received adjuvant therapy.[3][Level of evidence: 3iiA]

Preclinical studies have shown that the NUT-BRD4 fusion is associated with globally decreased histone acetylation and transcriptional repression; studies have also shown that this acetylation can be restored with histone deacetylase inhibitors, resulting in squamous differentiation and arrested growth in vitro and growth inhibition in xenograft models. Response to vorinostat has been reported in two separate cases of children with refractory disease, suggesting a potential role for this class of agents in the treatment of this malignancy.[4,5] The BET bromodomain inhibitors represent a promising class of agents that is being investigated for adults with this malignancy.[6]

References:

1. Lemelle L, Pierron G, Fréneaux P, et al.: NUT carcinoma in children and adults: A multicenter retrospective study. Pediatr Blood Cancer 64 (12): , 2017.
2. Bauer DE, Mitchell CM, Strait KM, et al.: Clinicopathologic features and long-term outcomes of NUT midline carcinoma. Clin Cancer Res 18 (20): 5773-9, 2012.
3. Chau NG, Hurwitz S, Mitchell CM, et al.: Intensive treatment and survival outcomes in NUT midline carcinoma of the head and neck. Cancer 122 (23): 3632-3640, 2016.
4. Schwartz BE, Hofer MD, Lemieux ME, et al.: Differentiation of NUT midline carcinoma by epigenomic reprogramming. Cancer Res 71 (7): 2686-96, 2011.
5. Maher OM, Christensen AM, Yedururi S, et al.: Histone deacetylase inhibitor for NUT midline carcinoma. Pediatr Blood Cancer 62 (4): 715-7, 2015.
6. French CA, Rahman S, Walsh EM, et al.: NSD3-NUT fusion oncoprotein in NUT midline carcinoma: implications for a novel oncogenic mechanism. Cancer Discov 4 (8): 928-41, 2014.

Treatment Options Under Clinical Evaluation for Childhood Midline Tract Carcinoma

Information about National Cancer Institute (NCI)–supported clinical trials can be found on the NCI website. For information about clinical trials sponsored by other organizations, refer to the ClinicalTrials.gov website.

The following are examples of national and/or institutional clinical trials that are currently being conducted:

• APEC1621 (NCT03155620) (Pediatric MATCH: Targeted Therapy Directed by Genetic Testing in Treating Pediatric Patients with Relapsed or Refractory Advanced Solid Tumors, Non-Hodgkin Lymphomas, or Histiocytic Disorders): NCI-COG Pediatric Molecular Analysis for Therapeutic Choice (MATCH), referred to as Pediatric MATCH, will match targeted agents with specific molecular changes identified using a next-generation sequencing targeted assay of more than 4,000 different mutations across more than 160 genes in refractory and recurrent solid tumors. Children and adolescents aged 1 to 21 years are eligible for the trial.

  Tumor tissue from progressive or recurrent disease must be available for molecular characterization. Patients with tumors that have molecular variants addressed by treatment arms included in the trial will be offered treatment on Pediatric MATCH. Additional information can be obtained on the NCI website and ClinicalTrials.gov website.

• NCT01587703(A Study to Investigate the Safety, Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics, and Clinical Activity of GSK525762 in Subjects With NUT Midline Carcinoma and Other Cancers): This study is evaluating the safety, pharmacokinetic, and pharmacodynamic profiles observed after oral administration of GSK525762, a BET bromodomain inhibitor, as well as the tolerability and clinical activity, in patients with NUT midline carcinoma and other solid tumors. Patients aged 16 years and older are eligible for this study.
• NCT01987362 (A Two Part, Multicenter, Open-label Study of TEN-010 Given Subcutaneously): This is a phase I, nonrandomized, dose-escalating, open label, multicenter study of patients aged 18 years and older with histologically confirmed advanced solid tumors with progressive disease requiring therapy or NUT midline carcinoma. This study is evaluating the safety, tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of TEN-010, a small molecule bromodomain inhibitor.

Special Considerations for the Treatment of Children With Cancer

Cancer in children and adolescents is rare, although the overall incidence of childhood cancer has been slowly increasing since 1975.[1] Referral to medical centers with multidisciplinary teams of cancer specialists experienced in treating cancers that occur in childhood and adolescence should be considered for children and adolescents with cancer. This multidisciplinary team approach incorporates the skills of the following health care professionals and others to ensure that children receive treatment, supportive care, and rehabilitation that will achieve optimal survival and quality of life:

• Primary care physicians.
• Pediatric surgeons.
• Radiation oncologists.
• Pediatric medical oncologists/hematologists.
• Rehabilitation specialists.
• Pediatric nurse specialists.
• Social workers.
• Child-life professionals.
• Psychologists.

(Refer to the PDQ Supportive and Palliative Care summaries for specific information about supportive care for children and adolescents with cancer.)

Guidelines for pediatric cancer centers and their role in the treatment of pediatric patients with cancer have been outlined by the American Academy of Pediatrics.[2] At these pediatric cancer centers, clinical trials are available for most types of cancer that occur in children and adolescents, and the opportunity to participate in these trials is offered to most patients and their families. Clinical trials for children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer are generally designed to compare potentially better therapy with therapy that is currently accepted as standard. Most of the progress made in identifying curative therapy for childhood cancers has been achieved through clinical trials. Information about ongoing clinical trials is available from the NCI website.

Dramatic improvements in survival have been achieved for children and adolescents with cancer. Between 1975 and 2010, childhood cancer mortality decreased by more than 50%.[3] Childhood and adolescent cancer survivors require close monitoring because cancer therapy side effects may persist or develop months or years after treatment. (Refer to the PDQ summary on Late Effects of Treatment for Childhood Cancer for specific information about the incidence, type, and monitoring of late effects in childhood and adolescent cancer survivors.)

Childhood cancer is a rare disease, with about 15,000 cases diagnosed annually in the United States in individuals younger than 20 years.[4] The U.S. Rare Diseases Act of 2002 defines a rare disease as one that affects populations smaller than 200,000 persons. Therefore, all pediatric cancers are considered rare.

The designation of a rare tumor is not uniform among pediatric and adult groups. Adult rare cancers are defined as those with an annual incidence of fewer than six cases per 100,000 people, and they are estimated to account for up to 24% of all cancers diagnosed in the European Union and about 20% of all cancers diagnosed in the United States.[5,6] Also, the designation of a pediatric rare tumor is not uniform among international groups, as follows:

• The Italian cooperative project on rare pediatric tumors (Tumori Rari in Eta Pediatrica [TREP]) defines a pediatric rare tumor as one with an incidence of less than two cases per 1 million population per year and is not included in other clinical trials.[7]
• The Children’s Oncology Group has opted to define rare pediatric cancers as those listed in the International Classification of Childhood Cancer subgroup XI, which includes thyroid cancer, melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancers, and multiple types of carcinomas (e.g., adrenocortical carcinoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and most adult-type carcinomas such as breast cancer, colorectal cancer, etc.).[8] These diagnoses account for about 4% of cancers diagnosed in children aged 0 to 14 years, compared with about 20% of cancers diagnosed in adolescents aged 15 to 19 years.[9]

  Most cancers within subgroup XI are either melanomas or thyroid cancer, with the remaining subgroup XI cancer types accounting for only 1.3% of cancers in children aged 0 to 14 years and 5.3% of cancers in adolescents aged 15 to 19 years.

These rare cancers are extremely challenging to study because of the low incidence of patients with any individual diagnosis, the predominance of rare cancers in the adolescent population, and the lack of clinical trials for adolescents with rare cancers.

Information about these tumors may also be found in sources relevant to adults with cancer.

References:

1. Smith MA, Seibel NL, Altekruse SF, et al.: Outcomes for children and adolescents with cancer: challenges for the twenty-first century. J Clin Oncol 28 (15): 2625-34, 2010.
2. Corrigan JJ, Feig SA; American Academy of Pediatrics: Guidelines for pediatric cancer centers. Pediatrics 113 (6): 1833-5, 2004.
3. Smith MA, Altekruse SF, Adamson PC, et al.: Declining childhood and adolescent cancer mortality. Cancer 120 (16): 2497-506, 2014.
4. Ward E, DeSantis C, Robbins A, et al.: Childhood and adolescent cancer statistics, 2014. CA Cancer J Clin 64 (2): 83-103, 2014 Mar-Apr.
5. Gatta G, Capocaccia R, Botta L, et al.: Burden and centralised treatment in Europe of rare tumours: results of RARECAREnet-a population-based study. Lancet Oncol 18 (8): 1022-1039, 2017.
6. DeSantis CE, Kramer JL, Jemal A: The burden of rare cancers in the United States. CA Cancer J Clin 67 (4): 261-272, 2017.
7. Ferrari A, Bisogno G, De Salvo GL, et al.: The challenge of very rare tumours in childhood: the Italian TREP project. Eur J Cancer 43 (4): 654-9, 2007.
8. Pappo AS, Krailo M, Chen Z, et al.: Infrequent tumor initiative of the Children’s Oncology Group: initial lessons learned and their impact on future plans. J Clin Oncol 28 (33): 5011-6, 2010.
9. Howlader N, Noone AM, Krapcho M, et al., eds.: SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975-2012. Bethesda, Md: National Cancer Institute, 2015. Also available online. Last accessed June 04, 2019.

Changes to This Summary (06 / 05 / 2019)

The PDQ cancer information summaries are reviewed regularly and updated as new information becomes available. This section describes the latest changes made to this summary as of the date above.

Editorial changes were made to this summary.

This summary is written and maintained by the PDQ Pediatric Treatment Editorial Board, which is editorially independent of NCI. The summary reflects an independent review of the literature and does not represent a policy statement of NCI or NIH. More information about summary policies and the role of the PDQ Editorial Boards in maintaining the PDQ summaries can be found on the About This PDQ Summary and PDQ® – NCI’s Comprehensive Cancer Database pages.

About This PDQ Summary

Purpose of This Summary

This PDQ cancer information summary for health professionals provides comprehensive, peer-reviewed, evidence-based information about the treatment of childhood midline tract carcinoma involving the NUT gene (NUT midline carcinoma). It is intended as a resource to inform and assist clinicians who care for cancer patients. It does not provide formal guidelines or recommendations for making health care decisions.

Reviewers and Updates

This summary is reviewed regularly and updated as necessary by the PDQ Pediatric Treatment Editorial Board, which is editorially independent of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The summary reflects an independent review of the literature and does not represent a policy statement of NCI or the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Board members review recently published articles each month to determine whether an article should:

• be discussed at a meeting,
• be cited with text, or
• replace or update an existing article that is already cited.

Changes to the summaries are made through a consensus process in which Board members evaluate the strength of the evidence in the published articles and determine how the article should be included in the summary.

The lead reviewers for Childhood Midline Tract Carcinoma Involving the NUT Gene (NUT Midline Carcinoma) Treatment are:

• Denise Adams, MD (Children’s Hospital Boston)
• Karen J. Marcus, MD (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Boston Children’s Hospital)
• Paul A. Meyers, MD (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center)
• Thomas A. Olson, MD (Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta – Egleston Campus)
• Alberto S. Pappo, MD (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital)
• R Beverly Raney, MD (Consultant)
• Arthur Kim Ritchey, MD (Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC)
• Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo, MD (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital)
• Stephen J. Shochat, MD (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital)

Any comments or questions about the summary content should be submitted to Cancer.gov through the NCI website’s Email Us. Do not contact the individual Board Members with questions or comments about the summaries. Board members will not respond to individual inquiries.

Levels of Evidence

Some of the reference citations in this summary are accompanied by a level-of-evidence designation. These designations are intended to help readers assess the strength of the evidence supporting the use of specific interventions or approaches. The PDQ Pediatric Treatment Editorial Board uses a formal evidence ranking system in developing its level-of-evidence designations.

Permission to Use This Summary

PDQ is a registered trademark. Although the content of PDQ documents can be used freely as text, it cannot be identified as an NCI PDQ cancer information summary unless it is presented in its entirety and is regularly updated. However, an author would be permitted to write a sentence such as “NCI’s PDQ cancer information summary about breast cancer prevention states the risks succinctly: [include excerpt from the summary].”

The preferred citation for this PDQ summary is:

PDQ® Pediatric Treatment Editorial Board. PDQ Childhood Midline Tract Carcinoma Involving the NUT Gene (NUT Midline Carcinoma) Treatment. Bethesda, MD: National Cancer Institute. Updated <MM/DD/YYYY>. Available at: https://www.cancer.gov/types/midline/hp-child-midline-tract-carcinoma-treatment-pdq. Accessed <MM/DD/YYYY>.

Images in this summary are used with permission of the author(s), artist, and/or publisher for use within the PDQ summaries only. Permission to use images outside the context of PDQ information must be obtained from the owner(s) and cannot be granted by the National Cancer Institute. Information about using the illustrations in this summary, along with many other cancer-related images, is available in Visuals Online, a collection of over 2,000 scientific images.

Disclaimer

Based on the strength of the available evidence, treatment options may be described as either “standard” or “under clinical evaluation.” These classifications should not be used as a basis for insurance reimbursement determinations. More information on insurance coverage is available on Cancer.gov on the Managing Cancer Care page.

Contact Us

More information about contacting us or receiving help with the Cancer.gov website can be found on our Contact Us for Help page. Questions can also be submitted to Cancer.gov through the website’s Email Us.

Last Revised: 2019-06-05