Kidney tumours

Last updated on: 18.12.2020

Dieser Artikel auf Deutsch

Requires free registration (medical professionals only)

Please login to access all articles, images, and functions.

Our content is available exclusively to medical professionals. If you have already registered, please login. If you haven't, you can register for free (medical professionals only).


Requires free registration (medical professionals only)

Please complete your registration to access all articles and images.

To gain access, you must complete your registration. You either haven't confirmed your e-mail address or we still need proof that you are a member of the medical profession.

Finish your registration now

HistoryThis section has been translated automatically.

The most common renal tumor in childhood, nephroblastoma was first classified as a renal neoplasm by Rance in 1814. The German surgeon Max Wilms (1867 - 1918) described the tumor in detail in his monograph "Die Mischgeschwülste der Niere" in 1899. Since then, nephroblastoma has also been referred to as Wilms' tumor (Graf 2006).

DefinitionThis section has been translated automatically.

A renal tumor is a growth in the area of the kidney that can be benign or malignant, unilateral or bilateral.

ClassificationThis section has been translated automatically.

Benign renal tumors:

  • Mesenchymal tumors such as:
  • Lipomas
  • Fibromas
  • Myomas
  • epithelial such as:
  • epithelial adenoma
  • oncocytoma (Herold 2020)
  • Mixed tumors such as:
  • Angiomyolipoma (Staehler 1997)

Malignant renal tumors (Herold 2020 / Kasper 2015 / Doehn 2017 / Pokop 2007)

  • Renal cell carcinoma
  • clear cell
  • papillary
  • chromophobe
  • oncocytoma (considered rather benign)
  • ductal Bellini carcinoma
  • tubulocystic
  • clear cell papillary
  • translocation-associated
  • associated with acquired cystic kidney disease
  • associated with hereditary leiomyomatosis
  • Nephroblastoma
  • Renal metastases

Age-related tumors (occurring in childhood -von Schweinitz 2019):

  • Nephroblastoma
  • Clear cell sarcoma
  • Renal cell carcinoma
  • Rhabdoid tumor
  • mesoblastic nephroma

OccurrenceThis section has been translated automatically.

Renal cell carcinoma: Renal cell carcinoma is the most common renal tumor in adults, accounting for 90%. The incidence of renal cell carcinoma increases with age. The peak incidence of the disease is between 50 - 75 years Kasper 2015).

Hereditary papillary renal cell carcinoma (HPRCC): HPRCC is a very rare renal tumor, more detailed figures are not available (Doehn 2017).

Nephroblastoma: Nephroblastoma is a rare but typical tumor of childhood. The incidence is 1 in 100,000 children < 15 years of age (Graf 2016). Nephroblastoma accounts for approximately 6% of all malignancies in children < 15 years of age (von Schweinitz 2019). The age of onset is between 1 - 4 years of age. In adults, the tumor occurs extremely rarely (von Schweinitz 2019). According to the guideline (Graf 2016), girls develop the disease more frequently than boys, while Manski (2020) describes the gender ratio as balanced.

Rhabdoid tumor: This typically occurs in children < 1 year of age (von Schweinitz 2019).

Mesoblastic nephroma: Mesoblastic nephroma occurs predominantly in the first 3 months of life (von Schweinitz 2019).

Oncocytoma: Oncocytoma is found rather rarely with 5% - 10% (Kasper 2015) and occurs predominantly in older age (Vogl 2011).

Angiomyolipoma: Angiomyolipoma occurs in 0.3 % - 0.1 % of cases and predominantly affects women. The peak age is between 50 - 60 years. In patients with tuberous cerebral sclerosis (an autosomal-dominantly inherited phakomatosis [Pantelis 2007]), bilateral angiomyolipoma is found with a frequency of 45 % - 80 % (Manski 2020).

LocalizationThis section has been translated automatically.

The vast majority of renal tumors are found unilaterally. Bilateral tumours can occur with an incidence of 1.6 % - 6 % (Siemer 2001).

Nephroblastoma: Nephroblastoma usually occurs unilaterally, but in 5 % - 10 % also bilaterally (von Schweinitz 2019).

Clear cell sarcoma: Clear cell sarcoma is almost always found unilaterally (von Schweinitz 2019).

Hereditary papillary renal cell carcinoma (HPRCC): HPRCC always occurs bilaterally (Doehn 2017).

Renal metastases: Metastases to the kidneys occur bilaterally in 50%. They originate in decreasing frequency from the following primary tumors (Prokop 2007):

  • Bronchial CA
  • Mamma- CA
  • Colon CA
  • gastric CA
  • Cervical CA
  • Ovarian CA
  • Pancreas- CA
  • Prostate CA
  • Skin tumor
  • Tumor of the contralateral kidney

Note(s)This section has been translated automatically.

Further details regarding clinical symptoms, diagnosis, differential diagnosis, therapy and prognosis of the individual tumors differ greatly and will not be discussed further here (see corresponding clinical picture).

LiteratureThis section has been translated automatically.

  1. Furtwängler R et al (2018) Renal tumors. Pediatric hematology and oncology. 441 - 464
  2. Graf N et al (2006) Renal tumors. Pediatric hematology and oncology. 847 - 864
  3. Graf N et al. (2016) S 1 guideline nephroblastoma (Wilms tumor) AWMF- Register 025 / 004 class S1.
  4. Herold G et al (2020) Internal Medicine. Herold Publishers 654 - 656
  5. Kasper D L et al (2015) Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. Mc Graw Hill Education 578 - 579
  6. Kasper D L et al (2015) Harrison's internal medicine. Georg Thieme Publishers 849 - 852
  7. Keller C K et al (2010) Practice of nephrology. Springer Verlag 94 - 104
  8. Kuhlmann U et al (2015) Nephrology: pathophysiology - clinic - renal replacement procedures. Thieme Verlag 63
  9. Doehn C et al. (2017) Guidelines program oncology (German Cancer Society, German Cancer Aid, AWMF): Diagnostics, therapy and follow-up of renal cell carcinoma, long version 1.2, 2017, AWMF register number: 043/017OL http://leitlinienprogramm-onkologie.de/Nierenzellkarzinom.85.0.html.
  10. Manski D (2020) The urology textbook. en Dirk Manski Publishers 278 - 301.
  11. Pantelis A et al (2007) Tuberous cerebral sclerosis: laser dermabrasion and fibrin sealant of facial angiofibromas. ResearchGate ENT (13) 55
  12. Prokop M et al. (2007) Whole-body computed tomography: spiral and multislice CT. Georg Thieme Publishers 706
  13. von Schweinitz D et al (2018) Pediatric surgery: visceral and general surgery of childhood. Springer Verlag 739
  14. Siemer S et al. (2001) The bilateral renal tumor Therapy management and histopathological results with long-term follow-up in 66 patients. The Urologist A (40) 114 - 120
  15. Staehler G et al (1997) Renal tumors: basic principles, diagnosis, therapy. Springer Verlag 3 - 4
  16. Vogl T J et al (2011) Diagnostic and interventional radiology. Springer Verlag 1015

Last updated on: 18.12.2020