Retrospective analysis of management and survival of patients with cancer of unknown primary discussed by a French national multidisciplinary tumor board

In France, a national multidisciplinary tumor board dedicated to patients with cancer of unknown primary (CUP MTB) was created in 2020. A retrospective analysis investigated the management and surival of patients discussed by CUP MTB. A total of 246 patients were referred to CUP MTB (124 females and 122 men); 67% underwent pathological and molecular characterization as recommended by the MTB, and 74.5% received MTB-oriented treatment while 25.5% received empiric treatment according to international guidelines. The median overall survival of patients treated according to MTB recommendations was 18.6 months (IQR 12.0), compared to 11,0 months (IQR 10.5) in patients with empiric treatment (HR 0.61; p=0.04). The authors conclude that integration of clinical, pathological, and molecular data within an expert MTB is feasible in a real-life setting and improves survival for a large portion of CUP patients.