Thyroid-like Follicular Carcinoma of the Kidney
Definition
- Carcinoma of the kidney with a predominant follicular pattern
Diagnostic Criteria
- Rare - under 10 cases reported
- Only series reported is 6 cases (Amin)
- Micro- and macrofollicular pattern reminiscent of thyroid carcinoma
- Most follicles filled with eosinophilic proteinaceous fluid
- No papillae
- Lined by cells with eosinophilic or amphophilic cytoplasm
- May have nuclear pseudoinclusions or grooves
- Surrounded by prominent pseudocapsule
- Metastasis from the thyroid must be ruled out
- Must be negative for TTF1 and thyroglobulin
- Must have no clinical or imaging evidence of thyroid primary
- Behavior uncertain
- One case reported with widespread metastases (Dhillon)
- One problematic case reported (Sterlacci)
- Renal tumor was negative for TTF1 and thyroglobulin
- Subsequent lung metastasis was TTF1 positive, thyroglobulin not reported
John P Higgins MD
Robert V Rouse MD
Department of Pathology
Stanford University School of Medicine
Stanford CA 94305-5342
Original posting:: January 24, 2011
