Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Feb 24, 2020; 11(2): 103-109
Published online Feb 24, 2020. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v11.i2.103
Metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma in isolated retroperitoneal lymph node without evidence of primary tumor in kidneys: A case report
Lisa BE Shields, Arash Rezazadeh Kalebasty
Lisa BE Shields, Norton Neuroscience Institute, Norton Healthcare, Louisville, KY 40202, United States
Arash Rezazadeh Kalebasty, Norton Cancer Institute, Norton Healthcare, Louisville, KY 40202, United States
Author contributions: Shields LB and Kalebasty AR contributed to the conception, design, acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data; Shields LB drafted the manuscript; Shields LB and Kalebasty AR critically revised the manuscript and gave final approval.
Informed consent statement: The patient gave written informed consent for the publication of this case.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Arash Rezazadeh Kalebasty, MD, Norton Cancer Institute, Norton Healthcare, 315 East Broadway, Louisville, KY 40202, United States. arash.rezazadehkalebasty@nortonhealthcare.org
Received: October 18, 2019
Peer-review started: October 18, 2019
First decision: November 5, 2019
Revised: November 8, 2019
Accepted: November 29, 2019
Article in press: November 29, 2019
Published online: February 24, 2020
Processing time: 128 Days and 6 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Retroperitoneal lymph node dissection has important diagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic functions in renal cell carcinoma (RCC). We present the first case of a solitary metastatic retroperitoneal lymph node with an unknown primary site but whose immunohistochemical features were consistent with clear cell RCC (CCRCC). A nephrectomy was not performed as a renal mass was not detected on any prior radiological examinations. Imaging studies for a subsequent 5 years demonstrated no recurrent or metastatic disease or retroperitoneal adenopathy. Our case highlights the therapeutic role of metastasectomy in metastatic CCRCC in the absence of a primary tumor in the kidneys.