Cancer of unknown primary service (CUP)

When a person is diagnosed with cancer that has spread within the body (metastatic cancer), the primary site - the place in the body where the cancer started - is not always obvious.

There are many reasons why the primary cancer cannot be found, such as:

• the secondary cancer has grown very quickly, while the primary cancer is still very small, very small cancers might not cause symptoms or be seen on scan
• the immune system has successfully attacked the original primary cancer and it has disappeared, while the secondary cancer is still growing (this is not common, but it can happen) (CUPfoundJo, 2023).

Finding the genetic origin of the cancer is important to define the best treatment.

When the origin of the cancer is not identified with confidence, after initial tests, this is described as Cancer of unknown primary or CUP.

We offer a Monday to Friday inpatient and outpatient service for adults based at all three of our hosptial sites. This includes a consultant-led CUP clinic and weekly multi- disciplinary team meetings.

Meet the team

1 clinical oncologist at each hospital site

1 CUP clinical nurse specialist working across all three hospital sites.

You can contact the CUP clinical nurse specialist on 07880 015633.