Association of urothelial carcinoma of the renal pelvis with papillary and medullary thyroid carcinomas. A new sporadic neoplastic syndrome?

ABSTRACT

We describe 2 adult women (72 and 54 years), 1 with a low-grade noninvasive papillary urothelial carcinoma of the renal pelvis, who 14 years later developed a papillary carcinoma in 1 thyroid lobe and a medullary carcinoma in the contralateral lobe. Both neoplasms were similar in size and appeared symmetrical. Despite its small size, the medullary carcinoma metastasized in multiple cervical lymph nodes. The second patient had a high-grade invasive papillary urothelial carcinoma of the renal pelvis that infiltrated the renal parenchyma and metastasized in one of the lungs. Five months later, a papillary carcinoma was discovered in the thyroid gland. The 2 papillary thyroid carcinomas were of the follicular variant. Adjacent to 1 papillary carcinoma, there was a dominant nodule of a colloid and adenomatous goiter. The medullary carcinoma contained stromal amyloid and was immunoreactive for calcitonin and carcinoembryonic antigen. There was no C-cell hyperplasia (medullary carcinoma in situ). The 2 patients are alive, 1 is living with pulmonary metastasis from the high-grade urothelial carcinoma. Twelve cases of this neoplastic association were registered in the Survey, Epidemiology, and End Results Program from 1980 to 2009. We believe that the combination of these unusual neoplasms in the same patient may represent a new sporadic neoplastic syndrome.