Renal cell carcinoma metastatic to the skin

Cutaneous metastases from renal cell carcinoma are rarely diagnosed during life. We reviewed the cases of our institute and from the Japanese literature and analyzed them to define the clinical features.

Six patients with cutaneous metastases from renal cell carcinoma were treated in our institute. Clinical data and follow-up information of these patients were reviewed.

The skin metastatic lesions were found before the renal lesion was discovered in one case and they were found after the diagnosis had been established in 5. Four patients presented with solitary cutaneous metastasis at the time of diagnosis of the skin metastatic lesion. Five patients had other sites of metastases such as the lung, liver and bone at the time of diagnosis of cutaneous metastases. Five patients died of renal cell carcinoma at mean 23.8 months after presenting with cutaneous metastases.

Our 6 cases bring the total reported in the Japanese literature to 75 cases. The results of these 75 cases revealed that the duration from the time of diagnosis of renal cell carcinoma to detection of the cutaneous metastasis was relatively long but the prognosis of patients with these metastatic skin lesions was poor. Cutaneous metastases from renal cell carcinoma were regarded as a late manifestation of the disease.