Spontaneous Regression Of Metastatic Renal Carcinoma
British Journal of Surgery 74(1): Jan 1987; 1-2
View Original Source →Abstract
A case is described of apparent spontaneous regression of widespread pulmonary metastases from carcinoma of the kidney, in a man aged 61. Similar cases have previously been reported but, with one exception, have always followed nephrectomy. In the case described here, nephrectomy was not performed nor was any specific therapy given which might have caused regression of the metastases.
Case Details
Clinical Characteristics
The patient is alive and well over two and a half years after the diagnosis of pulmonary metastases from a renal tumour removed six months earlier.
Remission Characteristics
Spontaneous regression
Treatment & Mechanisms
Proposed Remission Mechanisms
Not discussed
Clinical Treatment
Removal of renal tumour
Additional Notes
The author raises several questions about the phenomenon of spontaneous regression of tumours. Prolonged survival can also occur in patients in whom the primary tumour is not removed. Idiopathic regression perhaps represents one further stage towards this end of the spectrum, a spectrum which unfortunately has at its other end the patient who dies within months of the removal of an apparently localized tumour.