Concurrent occurrence of renal cell carcinoma with rhabdoid features in a married couple: a case report

Our plain-English summary of Concurrent occurrence of renal cell carcinoma with rhabdoid features in a married couple: a case report, by R. Matsumoto, N. Shinohara, K. C-Hatanaka, et al (BMC Research Notes, 2015).

The study

• Authors: R. Matsumoto, N. Shinohara, K. C-Hatanaka, N. Kuroda, K. Tsuchiya, S. Maruyama, T. Abe, K. Nonomura
• Journal: BMC Research Notes
• Published: 2015;8:3
• Type of article: Case report
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

Background: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) with rhabdoid features is a rare histology and exhibits clinically aggressive behavior. We report a case of a married couple in whom RCC with rhabdoid features concurrently occurred. The rarity of this event suggests that environmental factors may contribute to the etiology of RCC with rhabdoid features.

Case Presentation: A 76-year-old Japanese woman was diagnosed with a hypervascular mass in the right kidney and tumor thrombus extending into the right atrium by enhanced computed tomography (CT). She underwent radical nephrectomy and tumor thrombectomy following systemic therapy with the tyrosine kinase inhibitor sunitinib. The histological evaluation denoted clear cell RCC with rhabdoid features. The patient died of cancer 12 months postoperatively. A 76-year-old man, her husband, presented with gross hematuria 2 weeks after his wife had undergone surgery. He had a long history of asbestos exposure. An abdominal CT scan revealed a hypervascular mass in the right kidney and tumor thrombus extending into the inferior vena cava. He also underwent radical nephrectomy and tumor thrombectomy. The histological evaluation also showed clear cell RCC with rhabdoid features. Bone metastasis occurred 12 months postoperatively, but he died of an unrelated cause 18 months after surgery.

Conclusion: Concurrent occurrence of RCC with rhabdoid features may not to be coincidental. Although further studies are warranted, asbestos exposure may contribute to the etiology of clear cell RCC with rhabdoid features.

In plain English

This case report described a married couple in Japan who both developed the same rare kidney cancer: clear cell renal cell carcinoma with rhabdoid features and sarcomatoid change. The wife had a 70 mm right kidney tumor with tumor thrombus reaching the right atrium. After sunitinib treatment and removal of the kidney in December 2009, she died of cancer 12 months after surgery. Her 76-year-old husband, referred in December 2009, had an 80 mm right kidney tumor. After surgery in January 2010 he developed spinal metastasis and died of an unrelated cause in April 2011. He had been a shipyard worker exposed to asbestos for more than 30 years. The wife was not employed but routinely contacted his hair and clothing, and the authors wrote that she could have been exposed. In both tumors, the tumor cell nuclei were mostly negative for the protein BAP1. The authors concluded that asbestos exposure and BAP1 loss might have contributed. They noted that other exposures, including infection, could not be ruled out and that epidemiological evidence is limited.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: case report (two patients, a married couple)
• Who was studied: A Japanese married couple, married more than 40 years, who had lived in Hokuto city for 50 years. The wife was 75 at referral according to the case description (76 in the abstract), and the husband was 76. Both were treated at Hokkaido University between 2009 and 2011.
• Exposure: The husband had occupational asbestos exposure as a shipyard worker for more than 30 years; no fiber type was specified. The wife was not employed but had possible household exposure through routine contact with his hair and clothing.
• Main results:
  • Wife: the tumor was diagnosed as clear cell carcinoma with rhabdoid features and sarcomatoid change, assessed after sunitinib therapy.
  • Wife: she developed lung and liver metastasis and died of cancer 12 months after surgery.
  • Husband: the tumor was Fuhrman nuclear grade 4 clear cell RCC with rhabdoid features and sarcomatoid change.
  • In both patients, the tumor cell nuclei were mostly negative for BAP1.
  • Husband: the chest CT scan showed slight pleural thickening.
  • Husband: vertebral metastasis at the L1 level was found in January 2011, and he died of an unrelated cause in April 2011.
  • The couple reported no other unusual occupational exposures, such as organic solvents or cadmium. There was no report of significant increases in RCC incidence in their area.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the concurrent cancers were unlikely to be purely coincidental, and that asbestos exposure and BAP1 loss might have contributed to them. They called for future studies.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Other environmental exposures, including infection, could not be completely ruled out.
  • Epidemiological evidence for asbestos-triggered renal cell carcinoma is limited.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Carcinoma, Rhabdoid, Histology, Etiology, Systemic Therapy, Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor, Sunitinib (Sutent), Asbestos Exposure.

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