Fine‐needle aspiration biopsy diagnosis of malignant rhabdoid tumor of the kidney

Abstract

A series of six fine-needle aspiration biopsies from three patients with malignant rhabdoid tumor of the kidney is reviewed. The smears revealed round, polygonal, and irregularly shaped cells with large nuclei and prominent nucleoli. Some of the tumor cells contained light pink to purple cytoplasmic inclusions that correlated with the eosinophilic inclusions seen in histopathologic sections and filamentous cytoplasmic aggregates noted on ultrastructural examination. Diagnosis of malignant rhabdoid tumor of the kidney may be suggested from aspiration biopsy smears; however, further confirmation of the diagnosis by histologic or ultrastructural examination is desirable.

Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology Diagnosis of Renal Medullary Carcinoma

“…On fine needle aspiration, the tumor cells can have single cells and also clusters of them. 5 Some of the tumor cells in our case did have cytologic features which were reminiscent of the tumor cells in rhabdoid tumor. Mesoblastic nephroma also can have atypical cells, but often the cellularity is scant, and the tumor is typically seen in infants and newborns.…”

Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy of Metastatic Malignant Melanoma with “Rhabdoid” Features

“…18,19 Some of these variants, including signet-ring cell, 24 spindle cell, 22 myxoid, 23 desmoplastic 13,20 and balloon cell, 11 have been discussed in FNA reports as potentially representing sources of diagnostic errors. Although the FNA cytomorphologic features of renal and extrarenal rhabdoid neoplasms have been reported, 1,9,25 to the best of our knowledge, characteriza- tion of MM with rhabdoid features has not been described before in the cytopathology literature.…”

Cytologic features of renal medullary carcinoma

“…15 Renal medullary carcinoma may contain cells with rhabdoid features similar to those seen in rhabdoid tumor; however, the latter contains a monotonous population of rhabdoid cells. 16 Furthermore, rhabdoid tumors usually present in the first 3 years of life, unlike renal medullary carcinoma, which usually occurs in older patients, although the age range is broad. 1,10,16 -18 Anaplastic Wilms tumor, which also occurs at a young age, exhibits extreme polymorphism, nuclear hyperchromasia, and variations in the presence of the three cellular components (blastema, epithelial, and mesenchyme).…”