kidney

Clear cell papillary renal cell tumour is a small, low-grade kidney tumour that looks like a mix of clear cell and papillary kidney cancer but behaves harmlessly: no case has been reported to spread. The WHO renamed it from carcinoma to tumour in 2022 for that reason. It is common in people with kidney failure and is cured by removing it.

A risk-adapted Wilms tumour trial: children whose lung metastases vanished after six weeks of chemotherapy were spared lung radiation, while those with stubborn nodules or a high-risk chromosome pattern got stronger chemotherapy and did better than in the past.

Collecting duct carcinoma is a rare, aggressive kidney cancer that starts in the tubes deep in the kidney that collect urine. It is treated with surgery where possible and the platinum chemotherapy used for bladder cancer, not the usual kidney cancer drugs, which do not work in it. It is usually advanced when found: 74.4 percent of 286 US SEER patients were stage III or IV.

Eosinophilic solid and cystic renal cell carcinoma is a recently named kidney cancer, almost always in women, made of pink cells in solid areas and cysts. It was first seen in people with tuberous sclerosis and then found on its own, it is nearly always confined to the kidney, and surgery cures it in almost every reported case.

Houston oncologist who led the trial that established belzutifan, the first drug for the tumours of von Hippel-Lindau disease, including kidney cancers, pancreatic tumours and haemangioblastomas.

Fumarate hydratase-deficient renal cell carcinoma is a rare, aggressive kidney cancer in which the FH gene is lost, most often because the person was born with a faulty copy as part of the HLRCC syndrome, which also causes skin and womb fibroids. It strikes younger adults, is found by a stain for the missing enzyme, and needs family testing; advanced disease gets the usual kidney cancer drugs.

Mucinous tubular and spindle cell carcinoma is a rare, usually slow-growing kidney cancer, commoner in women, whose cells form small tubes and spindles in a mucus-rich background. It is driven by loss of the Hippo growth-control pathway rather than the faults of common kidney cancer, and surgery cures most cases.

Renal medullary carcinoma is a rare kidney cancer of young people with the sickle cell trait, driven by loss of SMARCB1. Platinum chemotherapy and removing the kidney are the main treatments. Most have spread when found; in the 52-patient series median survival was 13.0 months, 16.4 with nephrectomy against 7.0 without. So few centres see it that a trial and a second opinion are worth asking for.

Radiation oncologist who established stereotactic radiotherapy as a non-surgical option for primary kidney cancer.

Succinate dehydrogenase-deficient renal cell carcinoma is a very rare kidney cancer of younger adults who carry a faulty SDH gene, the same fault that causes hereditary paraganglioma and some stomach stromal tumours. Most are low grade and cured by surgery, but a minority spread years later, so patients and relatives need gene testing and follow-up.

Translocation renal cell carcinoma is a rare kidney cancer, more often seen in children and young adults, driven by a rearrangement of the TFE3 gene (or its relative TFEB). It can look like clear cell or papillary kidney cancer under the microscope, so it is found by testing for the gene. There is no standard treatment for advanced disease, which is treated with the usual kidney cancer drugs.