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Case Reports: Rare disease
Poorly differentiated orbital neuroendocrine carcinoma
  1. Yi Stephanie Zhang1,2,
  2. Marycon Jiro1,2,3,
  3. Melike Pekmezci1,4,5 and
  4. Bryan Winn1,2
  1. 1Department of Ophthalmology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
  2. 2Department of Ophthalmology, San Francisco VA Health Care System, San Francisco, California, USA
  3. 3School of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
  4. 4Department of Pathology, San Francisco VA Health Care System, San Francisco, California, USA
  5. 5Department of Pathology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Bryan Winn; bjw15{at}columbia.edu

Abstract

A man in his 70s presented with painless bilateral eyelid oedema and vertical diplopia. Evaluation showed a restrictive pattern of extraocular motility testing with MRI demonstrating significant enlargement of the right superior rectus and left superior oblique muscles along with right orbital fat stranding. Subsequent right orbital biopsy revealed poorly differentiated high-grade neuroendocrine carcinoma without a systemic primary site on further diagnostic workup. The patient was treated with carboplatin and etoposide and passed away from an infection a month after diagnosis. This case along with a review of other published cases highlights the varied presentation of orbital neuroendocrine carcinomas that may mimic a broad differential of orbital processes, thus requiring careful diagnostic workup. Subsequently, additional considerations in metastatic evaluation should be based on tumour histological features.

  • Head and neck cancer
  • Ophthalmology

https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2023-254844

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors BW: research design, data acquisition and research execution, data analysis and interpretation, manuscript preparation. MJ: data acquisition and research execution, manuscript preparation. YSZ: data acquisition and research execution, data analysis and interpretation, manuscript preparation. MP: data analysis and interpretation, manuscript preparation.

    • Funding This study was funded by National Eye Institute (P30 EY002162).

    • Case reports provide a valuable learning resource for the scientific community and can indicate areas of interest for future research. They should not be used in isolation to guide treatment choices or public health policy.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.