Late pulmonary metastases of renal cell carcinoma immediately after post-transplantation immunosuppressive treatment: a case report

Jose Manuel Cozar¹ , Natalia Aptsiauri² , Miguel Tallada¹ , Federico Garrido² and Francisco Ruiz-Cabello²

¹Servicio de Urología, Hospital Universitario Virgen de las Nieves, Granada, Spain

²Servicio de Análisis Clínicos, Hospital Universitario Virgen de las Nieves, Granada, Spain

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Journal of Medical Case Reports 2008, 2:111doi:10.1186/1752-1947-2-111


Published:	18 April 2008

Abstract

Introduction

We report a case of pulmonary metastatic recurrence of renal adenocarcinoma soon after radical nephrectomy that was followed by renal transplant and immunosuppressive medication. Increased risk of metastatic recurrence of renal cell carcinoma should be considered in the immediate post-transplant period when immunosuppressive medication is administered, even if nephrectomy had been performed many years earlier.

Case presentation

In 1986 the patient demonstrated renal insufficiency secondary to mesangial glomerulonephritis. In 1992 he underwent left side radical nephrectomy with histopathological diagnosis of clear cell adenocarcinoma. Mesangial glomerulonephritis in the remaining right kidney progressed to end-stage renal failure. In October 2000 he received a kidney transplant from a cadaver and commenced immunosuppressive medication. Two months later, several nodules were found in his lungs, which were identified as metastases from the primary renal tumor that had been removed with the diseased kidney 8 years earlier.

Conclusion

Recurrence of renal cell carcinoma metastases points to tumor dormancy and reflects a misbalance between effective tumor immune surveillance and immune escape. This case demonstrates that a state of tumor dormancy can be interrupted soon after administration of immunosuppressant medication.