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Spontaneous Regression Of Pulmonary Metastasis After Nephrectomy Because Of Renal Adenocarcinoma

Busato et al., 1981Kidney cancer

Rivista de Patologia e Clinica della Tubercolosi e di Pneumologia 52(5): 1981; 449-463

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Abstract

A case of spontaneous regression of pulmonary metastases from renal cell carcinoma after nephrectomy is presented. In a 57-year-old Japanese male who had had pulmonary metastases at the time of nephrectomy, the metastatic lesions disappeared without adjuvant therapy 8 years after nephrectomy. The patient is still surviving without recurrence or any signs indicative of new metastasis at the present. The clinical aspects of this interesting phenomenon are discussed briefly.

Case Details

Personal Characteristics

45-year-old male, reported asthenia, slight fever, much sweating at night, weight loss of 7 kilograms in 2 months

Clinical Characteristics

High erythrocyte sedimentation rate, slight anemia, left pleurisy, one round, opaque, homogeneous lesion with well-defined edges in the right lung, expansive formation of the inferior pole of the kidney, left renal pelvis appeared inferiorly displaced, abdominal aortography demonstrated richly vascularized expansive formations, renal adenocarcinoma with bilateral metastases, cerebral metastases

Remission Characteristics

Disappearance of the opaque formation from the right lung, absence of parenchymal lesions, absence of pulmonary metastatic lesions

Treatment & Mechanisms

Proposed Remission Mechanisms

Alterations of the immunologic status, hormonal modifications and a particular reactivity of the pulmonary tissue

Clinical Treatment

Left nephrectomy performed with inferior right polar heminephrectomy, follow-up tomography

Additional Notes

Patient died due to cerebral metastases