Tag Archive for: kidney biopsy

What Are the Challenges of Diagnosing Renal Medullary Carcinoma?

What Are the Challenges of Diagnosing Renal Medullary Carcinoma? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Renal medullary carcinoma (RMC) diagnosis may sometimes run into changes, but what are they? Expert Dr. Nizar Tannir explains what healthcare providers examine in RMC diagnosis, diagnosis challenges that can arise, and advice to patients to ensure they receive standard testing.

Dr. Nizar Tannir is a Professor in the Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

[ACT]IVATION TIP

“…make sure that they…with that suspicion of having a mass in the kidney, blood in the urine symptoms, et cetera, to if they have not already known about their sickle cell trait status, to really have the test, which we call hemoglobin electrophoresis.”

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Related Resources:

What Is Renal Medullary Carcinoma?
What Are the Symptoms of Renal Medullary Carcinoma?
How Is Renal Medullary Carcinoma Diagnosed

Transcript:

Cora:

What are the challenges with diagnosing RMC?

Dr. Tannir:  

RMC is a rare tumor and it requires a special stain as well as the knowledge the clinical knowledge that comes with it. So to make the diagnosis of RMC, we typically get a biopsy of the mass in the kidney and/or a metastatic site, a site that the cancer has spread to, let’s say the lymph node. And then the pathologist examines this material, the specimen under the microscope, and the diagnosis is confirmed when the pathologist reads that the tumor is poorly differentiated, because that’s what RMC looks like under the microscope and is described by the pathologist as poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma. But the specific strain that clenches the diagnosis is called I-N-I 1.

INI1 and that is negative or worse. So when we see poorly differentiated carcinoma from a lymph node or a biopsy of a kidney mass, and then we have to link it with the history. And it’s important to ask then the subject, the patient, if they have sickle cell trait or if they’re aware that they have some sickle cell hemoglobinopathy. And if they do have sickle cell trait or another sickle cell hemoglobinopathy with that finding and the biopsy of poorly differentiated carcinoma, INI1-negative, that’s then it confirms the diagnosis of RMC. My activation tip is for the subject to make sure that they…with that suspicion of having a mass in the kidney, blood in the urine symptoms, et cetera, to if they have not already known about their sickle cell trait status, to really have the test, which we call hemoglobin electrophoresis. So that’s actually an activation tip for the provider when they face a patient with suspected diagnosis of RMC. If that information is not already known is to order the hemoglobin electrophoresis, which will then tell them that the patient, the individual has sickle cell trait or not. So, I think it requires awareness by both the individual, the subject as well as the healthcare provider.


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