Primary pulmonary choriocarcinoma in male: report a case with genetic testing and review of the literature

BACKGROUND: Primary pulmonary choriocarcinoma is an extremely rare malignant trophoblastic tumor with a poor prognosis. Most choriocarcinomas originated from gonads, such as the ovaries and testes. Review the previous literature, only 41 cases were reported. CASE DESCRIPTION: We reported that a 65-year-old man found shadows in the lungs when undergoing the X-ray examination. Positron emission tomography (PET) was performed to exclude metastatic disease before surgery. The patient underwent three-dimension uniportal thoracoscopic left upper lung resection and lymph node dissection. The operation was uneventful, and he was discharged on the fourth day postoperatively. Postoperative pathology: malignant trophoblastic tumors (choriocarcinoma). After the operation, the patient has genetically tested, the mutations in tumor protein p53 (TP53), NRAS proto-oncogene (NRAS), and fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1) were found. CONCLUSIONS: Primary pulmonary choriocarcinoma is an extremely rare and highly malignant tumor difficult to detect in the early stage. By analyzing the previous literature, the patients with active treatment have more extended survival periods than the patients without treatment (P=0.0051). Patients, including surgery, had better survival than patients without surgery (P=0.027) depending on the different treatment regimens. Hence, once the diagnosis was confirmed, the comprehensive treatment of surgical resection combined with chemotherapy and radiotherapy is of great significance to improve the prognosis of patients.