Renal medullary carcinoma in a white adolescent with sickle cell trait

Renal medullary carcinoma (RMC) is a rare neoplasm of the kidney that has been recently described. It is almost exclusive to young patients of African descent and associated with sickle cell hemoglobinopathy, mainly sickle cell trait and hemoglobin sickle cell disease. The prognosis of RMC is very poor because of the highly aggressive behavior of this neoplasm and its resistance to conventional chemotherapy. Metastatic disease is almost universal at the time of presentation, and the malignancy is minimally responsive to a variety of regimens and/or modalities, including surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and biological immune-modulation therapy. We report the seventh case of a left RMC occurring in a white child with sickle cell trait, but with a localization of the tumor in the left kidney, considered a nonpredominant side for this type of tumor.