Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Nov 6, 2023; 11(31): 7690-7698
Published online Nov 6, 2023. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v11.i31.7690
Renal pelvis sarcomatoid carcinoma with renal vein tumor thrombus: A case report and literature review
Huai-Yong Guan, Jin Wang, Ji-Xue Wang, Qi-Hui Chen, Ji Lu, Liang He
Huai-Yong Guan, Jin Wang, Ji-Xue Wang, Qi-Hui Chen, Ji Lu, Liang He, Department of Urology, Jilin University First Hospital, Changchun 130000, Jilin Province, China
Author contributions: Guan HY and He L designed the case report; Guan HY, Wang J, and Wang JX admitted the patient and collected relevant information and materials; Chen QH, Lu J, and He L participated in patient surgical treatment; Guan HY and He L analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; All authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Supported by Science and Technology Development Program of Jilin Province, No. 2020122256JC and No. 20200201602JC.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Liang He, Doctor, Doctor, Department of Urology, Jilin University First Hospital, No. 1 Xinmin Street, Changchun 130000, Jilin Province, China. lianghe9278@jlu.edu.cn
Received: August 30, 2023
Peer-review started: August 30, 2023
First decision: September 20, 2023
Revised: October 6, 2023
Accepted: October 26, 2023
Article in press: October 26, 2023
Published online: November 6, 2023
Processing time: 67 Days and 20.5 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Renal pelvis sarcomatoid carcinoma (RPSC) is a rare and aggressive malignancy whose diagnosis is difficult because radiological imaging results can lead to misclassification as a more common type of renal tumor. In addition, clinical management of patients with RPSC is difficult because of the limited efficacy of available treatments. In this study, we present a comprehensive description of a patient who presented with RPSC and a simultaneous renal vein tumor thrombus.

CASE SUMMARY

During April, 2020, a 64-year-old female presented with an isolated episode of hematuria accompanied by abdominal pain. Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed a lesion in the right renal pelvis. We therefore performed a radical nephrectomy of the right kidney. The subsequent histopathological and immunological results verified the diagnosis of RPSC. Despite administration of 6 cycles of a gemcitabine-cisplatin regimen, the patient's condition progressively deteriorated, and she died about 15 mo after the nephrectomy.

CONCLUSION

We performed a comprehensive analysis of a patient with RPSC that included CT, MRI, immunohistochemistry, and genetic testing. The insights from our detailed analysis of this patient and our concomitant review of the literature may assist clinicians in their diagnosis and treatment of RPSC.

Keywords: Sarcomatoid carcinoma; Renal pelvis; Gene analysis; Literature review; Case report

Core Tip: Renal pelvis sarcomatoid carcinoma (RPSC) is an extremely rare tumor that is associated with a high mortality rate. We present a rare case of right RPSC with renal vein tumor thrombus, in which diagnosis was based on evidence from radiology, pathology, and analysis of tumor mutations. The specific genetic mutations in this patient’s tumor may provide insights into the invasive phenotype and pathogenesis of this cancer.