Hyperuricemic acute renal failure in disseminated carcinoma

A patient with widespread adenocarcinoma of gastrointestinal tract origin was seen in renal failure. He had extreme hyperuricemia, and at autopsy, uric acid crystals were demonstrated in many collecting structures of the kidney. To our knowledge, this is the first clinicopathologic description of hyperuricemic renal failure caused by spontaneous necrosis of a nonlymphomatous solid tumor.