Ying-En Lee a, Miao-Chun Yang b, Wei-Min Tsai a
aDepartment of Urology, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital and Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan
bDepartment of Otolaryngology, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital and Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan
Abstract
We report an extremely rare case of synchronous development of two distinct primary tumors, nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and renal cell carcinoma (RCC). A 47-year-old man with a longstanding smoking history presented with bilateral neck masses. NPC was confirmed by biopsy and a pathology report. However, during the staging process, a left middle renal solid mass was detected by abdominal computed tomography, and the follow-up computed tomography-guided biopsy revealed clear cell type RCC. The patient was treated with concurrent chemoradiation therapy and left nephrectomy for the NPC and RCC, respectively. In addition to the clinically common risk of cigarette smoking for both NPC and RCC, the biological similarity of NPC and RCC cell lines has also been documented in some in vitro studies. Awareness of the possible simultaneous occurrence of these two malignancies and inclusion of the nasopharynx and kidneys in the staging processes for RCC and NPC might help shed more light on their clinical correlation.
Keywords
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma; Renal cell carcinoma; Smoking
