Histopathology and molecular genetics of renal tumors: Toward unification of classification system.

Purpose: We characterize the genetic abnormalities associated with patholog ical subtypes of renal tumors, which may help diagnosis or prognostication. Materials and Methods: A comprehensive literature review of genetic abnorma lities associated with different renal tumor subtypes was performed. Results: Studies of sporadic and hereditary forms suggest that abnormalitie s in the von Hippel-Lindau and met genes are the earliest changes in conven tional (clear cell) and papillary basophilic renal cancers, respectively. R enal oncocytoma and chromophobe carcinoma have common genetic abnormalities , suggesting a relationship. A similar finding has been observed between pa pillary adenoma and papillary basophilic renal cancer. Conclusions: These findings suggest that molecular diagnostic testing will help determine histopathological diagnosis, identify tumor types with simil ar genetic abnormalities suggesting a common origin and indicate potential prognostic markers for future study.