Metanephric adenoma (MA) is a rare,

benign Malignancy () is the tendency of a medical condition to become progressively worse. Malignancy is most familiar as a characterization of cancer. A ''malignant'' tumor contrasts with a non-cancerous ''benign'' tumor in that a malignancy is not s ...

tumour A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tissue, and persists ...

of the

kidney The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; blo ...

, that can have a microscopic appearance similar to a nephroblastoma (Wilms tumours), or a papillary

renal cell carcinoma Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is a kidney cancer that originates in the lining of the Proximal tubule, proximal convoluted tubule, a part of the very small tubes in the kidney that transport primary urine. RCC is the most common type of kidney cance ...

. It should not be confused with the pathologically unrelated, yet similar sounding, '' mesonephric adenoma''.

Symptoms

The symptoms may be similar to those classically associated with

, and may include

polycythemia Polycythemia (also known as polycythaemia) is a laboratory finding in which the hematocrit (the volume percentage of red blood cells in the blood) and/or hemoglobin concentration are increased in the blood. Polycythemia is sometimes called eryth ...

abdominal pain Abdominal pain, also known as a stomach ache, is a symptom associated with both non-serious and serious medical issues. Common causes of pain in the abdomen include gastroenteritis and irritable bowel syndrome. About 15% of people have a m ...

hematuria Hematuria or haematuria is defined as the presence of blood or red blood cells in the urine. “Gross hematuria” occurs when urine appears red, brown, or tea-colored due to the presence of blood. Hematuria may also be subtle and only detectable w ...

and a palpable mass. Mean age at onset is around 40 years with a range of 5 to 83 years and the mean size of the tumour is 5.5 cm with a range 0.3 to 15 cm (1). Polycythemia is more frequent in MA than in any other type of renal tumour. Of further relevance is that this tumour is more commonly calcified than any other kidney neoplasm. Surgery is curative and no other treatment is recommended. There is so far no evidence of metastases or local recurrence.

Pathology

Histopathology

Metanephric adenoma is diagnosed histologically. The tumours can be located at upper pole, lower pole and mid-hilar region of the kidney; they are well circumscribed but unencapsulated, tan pink, with possible cystic and hemorrhagic foci. They show a uniform architecture of closely packed acinar or tubular structures of mature and bland appearance with scanty interposed stroma. Cells are small with dark staining nuclei and inconspicuous nucleoli. Blastema is absent whereas calcospherites may be present. Glomeruloid figures are a striking finding, reminiscent of early fetal metenephric tissue. The lumen of the acini may contain otherwise epithelial infoldings or fibrillary material but it is quite often empty. Mitoses are conspicuously absent. In the series reported by Jones ''et al.'' tumour cells were reactive for Leu7 in 3 cases of 5, to vimentine in 4 of 6, to cytocheratin in 2 of 6, to epithelial membrane antigen in 1 of 6 cases and muscle specific antigen in 1 of 6. Olgac ''et al.'' found that intense and diffuse immunoreactivity for alpha-methylacyl-CoA racemase (AMACR) is useful in differentiating renal cell carcinoma from MA but a panel including AMACR, CK7 and CD57 is better in this differential diagnosis. Differential diagnosis may be quite difficult indeed as exemplified by the three malignancies initially diagnosed as MA that later metastasized, in the report by Pins et al.

Cytogenetic characteristics

Brunelli ''et al.'' stated that genetic analysis of chromosome 7, 17, and Y may facilitate discrimination of MA from papillary renal cell carcinoma in difficult cases. Their study showed that MA lacks the frequent gain of chromosomes 7 and 17 and losses of the Y chromosome that are typical of papillary renal cell neoplasms, suggesting that MA is not related to renal cell carcinoma and papillary adenoma.

Treatment

As metanephric adenomas are considered benign, they can be left in place, i.e. no treatment is needed.

History

MA has been described in the past under other names such as néphrome néphronogène, metanephroider Nierentumor and nephroblastomartiges Nierenadenom (5) but the term metanephric adenoma was suggested by Brisigotti, Cozzutto et al. in 1992 and then widely accepted. Prior to this report, Nagashima et al. in 1991 had not offered a nosological innovation for their two cases whereas the denomination of néphrome néphronogène proposed by Pages and Granier in 1980 had gone largely undetected.

References

External links

{{Urologic neoplasia Benign renal neoplasms