Nephrotic syndrome in chronic lymphocytic leukemia: a paraneoplastic syndrome?

The association of malignancy and various glomerulopathies is a well recognized phenomenon. We report a case of nephrotic syndrome secondary to minimal-change disease in a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and review the literature on nephrotic syndrome in this disorder. Since the relative distribution of etiologies differ from what might be expected for primary nephrotic syndrome in a similar aged population, we propose that nephrotic syndrome is a potential paraneoplastic phenomenon associated with CLL. We hypothesize a possible etiologic role of different cell surface markers of the lymphocyte to explain the diverse renal histologic manifestations.