MEMBRANOUS NEPHROPATHY ASSOCIATED WITH A RENAL-CELL CARCINOMA AND A SPLENIC HAMARTOMA - ONE CASE-REPORT

We report the case of a 36 years old woman who presented a renal cell carcinoma, associated to a membranous nephropathy as a paraneoplastic syndrome. The concomitant association with a splenic hamartoma was pro bably fortuitous. Five years after nephrectomy, the patient was asympt omatic and her proteinuria was very low. We studied in the literature 93 cases which reported a such association between cancer, nephrotic s yndrome and membranous nephropathy. Carcinoma of the lung and adenocar cinoma of the gastrointestinal tract are the most frequently implicate d This association can occur at every age and more often in men (75%) than in women. The survival is directly linked to the evolution of the cancer. Proteinuria and membranous nephropathy can totally disappear after surgigal resection of the carcinoma The glomerular injury is med iated by immune complexes composed at least in part of tumour associat ed antigens. The development of several types of glomerular injury in patients with carcinoma have been described but membranous glomerulone phretis is the most commonly observed.