Renal Yolk Sac Tumor Clinically Misdiagnosed as Nephroblastoma: A Case Report

Abstract

Background: Yolk sac tumor is a germ cell tumor (GCT) that occurs in infants and adolescents and affects various sites. There is a trend to treat pediatric renal tumors before a tissue diagnosis. We report a renal yolk sac tumor clinically misdiagnosed as Wilms tumor, based on ultrasound (US) and MRI.

Case Report: This 21-month-old male infant was discovered to have a space occupying lesion in the right kidney. Because the tumor was large, initial radiotherapy preceded surgical resection. Histologically, the tumor was a yolk sac tumor.

Conclusion: Imaging examination of renal yolk sac tumor can easily be misdiagnosed as Wilms tumor. SIOP treatment plan for Wilms tumor requires preoperative chemotherapy, which is different from the treatment regimen for yolk sac tumor. Preoperative alpha-fetoprotein could have been helpful in avoiding this clinical misdiagnosis.

Keywords:

• yolk sac tumor
• endodermal sinus tumor
• kidney tumor
• germ cell tumor
• renal blast
• misdiagnosis

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the help and support from the department of pathology of Logistics support force of Chinese people’s Liberation Army.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. The patient gave informed consent.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.