LAUSR

Neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) of the female genital tract is a rare and aggressive subtype of cancer that is still poorly understood. Several recent studies reported that pulmonary and gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms show significantly different patterns of metastasis compared to non-NECs of the same primary sites. The aim of this study was to evaluate the metastatic patterns of gynecologic NECs and to compare the metastatic patterns of NECs and non-NECs of the same primary sites. We retrieved and analyzed cervical, endometrial, and ovarian NEC cases from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. To validate the results, we also retrieved and analyzed cervical NEC cases from an institutional database. Uterine cervical NEC was the most common NEC. The overall metastatic rate was significantly higher in the NEC group than in the non-NEC group for all three primary sites. All cervical, endometrial, and ovarian NECs showed a higher tendency for bone, brain, and liver organotrophic metastasis than non-NECs of the same primary sites. We demonstrated that gynecologic NECs show significantly different metastatic patterns compared to non-NECs of the same primary sites. These findings might help clinicians to better manage patients with gynecologic NECs.