Abstract
A 58-year-old housewife was admitted on Sept. 1976 with chief complaints of cough, hemoptysis and dyspnea. Chest X-ray indicated right lung atelectasis with mediastinal and tracheal shift to the right. Bronchoscopic examination revealed that the right truncus intermedius was obstructed with a red-yellowish tumor mass. Left nephrectomy had been performed in October. 1961 due to gross hematuria with a diagnosis of clear cell carcinoma. The postoperative course was uneventful until the gradual development of pulmonary symptoms which were seen intermittently since 1975. Under intensive treatment, this patient made some improvement, but deteriorated again and eventually died in Oct. 1977. Postmortem autopsy showed widespread metastases with various-sized confluent tumor mass occupying the right middle and lower lobe of lung. The metastases histologically resembled the original tumor especially those metastasizing to the pancreas. This case suggests that renal cell tumor may behave as a low grade malignancy and recur years later.
