SARCOMATOID TRANSITIONAL-CELL CARCINOMA OF THE RENAL PELVIS - A REPORT OF 5 CASES WITH CLINICAL, PATHOLOGICAL, IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL AND DNA-PLOIDY ANALYSIS

Sarcomatoid transitional cell carcinoma of the renal pelvis is a rare neoplasm with only 7 well illustrated examples reported. These tumours cart assume a partial or complete spindle cell pattern of growth, len ding to the erroneous classification as sarcomas. We describe the clin ic-pathologic features of five additional examples of sarcomatoid carc inoma of the renal pelvis observed in three males and two females. The age ranged from 65-to-82 years-old (mean 71.6). All these patients we re treated by nephrectomy and died of disease between 6 and 20 months (mean 11.2) after the onset of symptoms. An immunohistochemical study demonstrated coexpression of keratins, epithelial membrane antigen and vimentin. The image DNA ploidy of all the tumours showed an aneuploid pattern.