Papillary renal cell carcinoma with clear cell cytomorphology and chromosomal loss of 3p

Aims: Cytogenetic studies on renal cell carcinomas (RCCs) have disclosed a correlation between chromosome aberrations and histomorphological features. Nevertheless, it is still controversial whether the cytomorphology of the tumour cells (clear cell, chromophilic, chromophobe) or their growth patter n (non-papillary, papillary) is more discriminative for the combined histom orphological-cytogenetic classification of RCCs. Methods and results: Three RCCs with papillary growth pattern and clear cel l cytomorphology were analysed by classical cytogenetics using standard G-b anding techniques. Each tumour displayed clonal aberrations leading to loss of terminal 3p chromosomal segments. Monosomy :14 was also consistently fo und. Trisomy 17 was not observed in any of the tumours. Conclusions: This series of three RCCs consisting of clear cells with papil lary architecture revealed chromosomal aberrations characteristic for the c onventional (clear cell) RCC. Irrespective of the predominant papillary gro wth pattern, none of the cases were characterized by trisomy of chromosomes 3q, 7, 8, 12, 16, 17 and 20 and loss of Y chromosome which are widely rega rded as the most consistent genetic alterations for papillary RCC. Therefor e, our cytogenetic findings provide evidence that papillary clear cell RCCs should be classified according to their cytomorphology rather than their g rowth pattern even when papillary architecture is prominent.