Abstract
We experienced the case of a hemodialysis patient with acquired cystic disease of the kidneys, who developed renal cell carcinoma of very rare histology. The patient was a 47-year-old male, who had been on hemodialysis for 25 years. He was admitted to the hospital because of general fatigue, abdominal distension, and loss of appetite in December, 1993. Massive pleural effusion was disclosed by chest X-ray and malignant cells were demonstrated in the pleural fluid. Although CT images of his abdomen showed multiple metastatic tumors in the liver, the primary site of the tumor remained unknown until the patient died in January, 1994. At autopsy, left renal cancer was demonstrated as well as metastatic tumors in the liver, spine, right diaphragm and right pleura. Histologically the tumor, which expressed both epithelial and mesenchymal characteristics, was diagnosed as sarcomatoid renal cell carcinoma. We present this case as sarcomatoid renal cell carcinoma in a uremic patient has not previously been reported in this country and because radiological examinations did not demonstrate the tumor in the left kidney.
