Abstract:

Cervical large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) is a special type of cervical cancer with characteristics of high malignancy and aggressiveness, and shows a tendency to metastasize systemically at an early stage. The development of cervical LCNEC is closely related to high-risk HPV infection. The diagnosis of cervical LCNEC is mainly based on typical pathological features and detection of specific neuroendocrine markers because of the lack of specificity of clinical manifestations. Due to the low incidence of cervical LCNEC and limited case data, there is no standardized treatment protocol, and its treatment is mainly based on small cell lung cancer, with radical surgery combined with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. However, genomic data suggest that cervical LCNEC is genetically more similar to common types of cervical cancer rather than to small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma outside the cervix, such as lung or bladder, which questions the ideas of adopting similar treatment regimens because of similar morphological manifestations among tumor tissues. This article focuses on a review of recent research advances regarding cervical LCNEC, with the aim of providing references and lessons for clinical work.

Key words: Uterine cervical neoplasms, Carcinoma, large cell, Carcinoma, neuroendocrine, Diagnosis, Therapy