Secondary amyloidosis is a rare complex complication related to chronic inflammatory disease. This complication is sparsely associated to malignant neoplasms. Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common solid organ malignancy related with this paraneoplastic syndrome. Some case reports have described stabilisation or even remission of amyloidosis with cytoreductive nephrectomy. Majority of those reports were based on locally advanced RCC. We report the first case of early aggressive systemic secondary amyloidosis in high-volume metastatic RCC. The subject was diagnosed with metastatic RCC within 6 months of secondary amyloidosis; on month 5 of initiation of targeted therapy (pazopanib) developed nephrotic syndrome with a heavy proteinuria (>18 g/day), severe hypoalbuminaemia (1.53 g/dL), intense and progressive oedema, severe pancolitis and mild dyspnoea with hypotension. A colon biopsy and the immunohistochemistry confirmed the histological diagnosis of a secondary amyloidosis. The multidisciplinary tumour board decided to perform cytoreductive nephrectomy in order to reduce the pro-inflammatory status. Pathology report showed a complete resection of clear cell RCC plus renal amyloid deposits. The patient died within 4 days of surgery due to multiorgan failure.
Keywords: AA amyloidosis; nephrectomy; nephrotic syndrome; renal cell carcinoma; secondary amyloidosis.
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