Bellini Duct Carcinoma: Case Report and Review of the Literature

Abstract

Bellini duct carcinoma is highly aggressive tumor with poor prognosis. Metastases develop in most patients. Early diagnosis is very important and might increase the patient's life span. Various treatment protocols including radiotherapy, chemotherapy and immunotherapy have been adopted. However, these treatments do not create satisfactory results. We aimed to present an 80-year-old female patient who underwent left radical nephrectomy due to the presence of a cystic mass with the dimensions of 96x91x118 mm that was located in the upper pole of the left kidney. Pathology resulted as "collecting duct carcinoma" with lymph node metastasis. Metastatic lesions were observed in bilateral cerebellar hemispheres, cerebral hemispheres and brain stem of the patient on the magnetic resonance images that were obtained when the patient was admitted to the emergency service at the postoperative 10th day with hemifacial paralysis. Bellini duct carcinoma is a rare and aggressive type of kidney tumor with a low survival rate. A curative treatment option is still not available in the contemporary literature for this tumor which is mostly locally advanced or metastatic at the time of diagnosis.