Mesoblastic nephroma

Congenital mesoblastic nephroma, while rare, is the most common kidney neoplasm diagnosed in the first three months of life and accounts for 3-5% of all childhood renal neoplasms. This neoplasm is generally non-aggressive and amenable to surgical removal. However, a readily identifiable subset of these kidney tumors has a more malignant potential and is capable of causing life-threatening metastases. Congenital mesoblastic nephroma was first named as such in 1967 but was recognized decades before this as fetal renal hamartoma or leiomyomatous renal hamartoma.
Presentation.
Congenital mesoblastic nephroma typically (76% of cases) presents as an abdominal mass which is detected prenatally (16% of cases) by ultrasound or by clinical inspection (84% of cases) either at birth or by 3.8 years of age (median age ~1 month). The neoplasm shows a slight male preference. Concurrent findings include hypertension (19% of cases), polyhydramnios (i.e. excess of amniotic fluid in the amniotic sac) (15%), hematuria (11%), hypercalcemia (4%), and elevated serum levels of the kidney-secreted, hypertension-inducing enzyme, renin (1%). Congenital anomalies have been reported in 11 patients: 6 with genitourinary anomalies, 2 with gastrointestinal anomalies, 1 with hydrocephalus, and 1 with the Beckwith–Wiedemann syndrome. The vast majority of patients present with localized (i.e. non-metastatic) disease. Most patients' disease is classified at presentation as stage I or II (i.e. localized), few patients present with stage III (i.e. locally advanced/infiltrating), and virtually no patients present with stage IV (metastases present or V (i.e. tumors in both kidneys) disease (see staging of renal cancer).
Tumor pathology.
Congenital Mesoblastic nephroma is a malignant tumorous growth of the kidney's mesenchyme (i.e. connective tissue cells). Histologic examination of these tumors provides critical information on their prognoses. This examination divides congenital mesoblastic nephroma into three types:
Genetics.
A study conducted in 1998 found that congenital mesoblastic nephroma tissues taken from some patients contained an acquired mutation, the "ETV6-NTRK3" fusion gene. This gene results from a translocation of genetic material from the "ETV6" gene located on the short arm (designated p) of chromosome 12 at position p13.2 (i.e. 12p13.2) to the "NTRK3" gene located on the long arm (designated q) of chromosome 15 at position q25.3 (i.e. 15q25.3). This "ETV6-NTRK3" gene fusion is notated as t(12;15)(p13;q25) and consists of the 5' end of "ETV6" fused to the 3' end of "NTRK3". In consequence, the chimeric protein product of this gene lacks ETV6 protein's transcription factor activity while having NTRK3 protein's tyrosine kinase in an unregulated and continuously active form. Either event can drive the malignant growth of cells but in most cases the chimeric protein's tyrosine kinase activity appears responsible for doing so. Based on a limited number of genetic studies (a total of 65 patients), the "ETY6-NTRK3" fusion gene appears to occur in most cases of the cellular and some cases of the mixed but no cases of the classical types of congenital mesolastic nephroma. However, a more recent study of 19 patients detected the fused gene in all 8 cases of cellular, 5 of 6 cases of mixed, and 0 of 5 cases of classic mesoblastic nephroma. This suggests that expression of this fused gene may be more common in cellar and mixed mesoblastic nephroma than previously appreciated.
Trisomy, i.e. pathological presence of an extra chromosome, also occurs in these neoplasms. Trisomy of chromosome 11 (e.g. trisomy 11) appears to be the most commonly found trisomy in this disease, being detected in 7 of 13 genetically studied cases. Individual case reports have also found trisomy 8 (9 cases), 17 (4 cases), 20 (4 cases), 7 (3 cases), 10 (3 cases), 18 (2 cases), 2 (2 cases), and 9 (2 cases) associated with the disease. The contribution of these trisomies to the development of mesoblastic nephroma is unclear.
Diagnosis.
Diagnosis of mesoblastic nephroma and its particular type (i.e. classic, mixed, or cellular) is made by histological examination of tissues obtained at surgery. Besides its histological appearance, various features of this disease aid in making a differential diagnosis that distinguish it from the following childhood neoplasms:
Treatment.
Based on a survey of >800, surgical removal of the entire involved kidney plus the peri-renal fat appeared curative for the majority of all types of mesoblastic nephroma; the patient overall survival rate was 94%. Of the 4% of non-survivors, half were due to surgical or chemotherapeutic treatments. Another 4% of these patients suffered relapses, primarily in the local area of surgery rare cases of relapse due to lung or bone metastasis.. About 60% of these recurrent cases had a complete remission following further treatment. Recurrent disease was treated with a second surgery, radiation, and/or chemotherapy that often vincristine and actinomycin treatment. Removal of the entire afflicted kidney plus the peri-renal fat appears critical to avoiding local recurrences. In general, patients who were older than 3 months of age at diagnosis or had the cellular form of the disease, stage III disease, or involvement of renal lymph nodes had a higher recurrence rate. Among patients with these risk factors, only those with lymph node involvement are recommended for further therapy.
It has been suggested that mesoblastic nephroma patients with lymph node involvement or recurrent disease might benefit by adding the ALK inhibitor, crizotinib, or a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, either larotrectinib or entrectinib, to surgical, radiation, and/or chemotherapy treatment regimens. These drugs inhibit NTRK3's tyrosine kinase activity. Crizotinib has proven useful in treating certain cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia that are associated with the "ETV6-NTRK3" fusion gene while larotrectinib and entrectinib have been useful in treating various cancers (e.g. a metastatic sarcoma, papillary thyroid cancer, non-small-cell lung carcinoma, gastrointestinal stromal tumor, mammary analog secretory carcinoma, and colorectal cancer) that are driven by mutated, overly active tyrosine kinases. Relevant to this issue, a 16-month-old girl with infantile fibrosarcoma harboring the "ETV6–NTRK3" fusion gene was successfully treated with larotrectinib. The success of these drugs, however, will likely depend on the relative malignancy-promoting roles of ETV6-NTRK3 protein's tyrosine kinase activity, the lose of ETV6-related transcription activity accompanying formation of ETV6-NTRK3 protein, and the various trisomy chromosomes that populate mesoblastic nephroma.