Objective: Renal primitive neuroectodermal tumor (PNET) is a rare and highly malignant neoplasm. Our study aims to present the clinical findings and prognosis of 6 patients with renal PNET from China.
Material and methods: From January 2003 to February 2012, 6 patients with renal PNET confirmed by immunohistochemical staining and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) treated in our institution were reviewed retrospectively and our data compared with the literature.
Results: There were 4 male and 2 female patients with a mean age of 35.0 years. The mean diameter was 13.3 cm. Five of the masses had renal vein thrombosis, and 3 extended into the inferior vena cava. A lymph node metastasis was detected in 1 patient and a liver metastasis in another patient. Radical nephrectomy was performed in all cases, with 5 patients following chemotherapy and 1 receiving Sutent treatment. Within a median follow-up of 7.5 months (range 1-71), median overall survival was 22.1 months.
Conclusions: The diagnosis of renal PNET should be considered in young patients presenting with renal mass and venous thrombosis. It seems that Asian renal PNET patients had a higher rate of venous thrombosis than Caucasian populations. CD99 positivity on immunohistochemistry and EWS-FL1 chimera gene detected by FISH support the diagnosis. The prognosis is poor despite multimodal treatment.
Copyright © 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel.