Small bowel metastatic SWI/SNF-deficient undifferentiated carcinoma may be predictive of lung primary-a rare presentation with novel SMARCA2 mutation findings in a study of three cases.

Abstract

The gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is an uncommon destination for metastasis, and the small bowel (SB) is among the more common sites. The SB metastatic carcinoma is often undifferentiated, usually with variable components of rhabdoid tumor cells. Primary lung non-small cell carcinoma (NSCLC) is a commonly implicated source and is often undifferentiated, though other differentiated histotypes may be responsible. Both primary lung and metastatic GIT poorly or undifferentiated carcinomas often show SWI/SNF deficiency especially of SMARCA4 and SMARCA2, singly or co-deficient. We report three such rare cases, in complementation of an earlier larger series, of SB metastatic SMARCA4/A2-deficient undifferentiated carcinoma from lung primary, with full immunophenotypic and genetic workup. We made the novel discovery of the same SMARCA2 mutations in the lung tumors of two of our cases which could have contributed to SMARCA2 deficiency. This contrasts with the conventional belief that SMARCA2 deficiency is mostly related to epigenetic events. It is important to differentiate these metastatic tumors from primary GIT SWI/SNF-deficient undifferentiated carcinomas and possible secondary SB undifferentiated carcinoma from female genital tract (FGT) primary, which are often morphologically difficult to distinguish. The primary GI and secondary FGT carcinomas usually show broader deficiency of SWI/SNF subunits, microsatellite instability-high or mismatch repair protein deficiency. Correlation with clinical and imaging findings is important in making the distinction. As primary NSCLC is a commonly implicated tumor causing SB metastatic undifferentiated carcinoma, discovery of the latter should instigate investigation for possible lung primary which may be helpful for timely introduction of possibly effective therapies such as cisplatin chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and epigenetics or synthetic lethality-based treatment.