AIM: The aim of this paper was to report authors' experience and review of the literature on rare isolated perirenal space metastases from different primary tumors. METHODS: From January 2004 to August 2008 we evaluated retrospectively 9 patients with isolated nodular neoplastic lesions of the perirenal space with computed tomography (CT) imaging and we reported the follow-up after relapse of disease. RESULTS: All the masses resulted being of secondary tumor involvement (melanoma (2/9 cases 22.22%), esophagus-gastric tract adenocarcinoma (3/9 cases 33.33%), gynecological tumor (2/9 cases 22.22%) and gastrointestinal tumor (2/9 cases, 22.22%), diagnosed by biopsy CT-guided (2 cases), or histological post-surgical examination (1 case), or clinical and instrumental follow-up (4 cases) or postmortem examination (2 cases). The lesions were bilateral in 3 cases and monolateral in 6 cases, isolated in four cases and multiple in five cases; they have demonstrated partially necrotic parenchymal density as soft tissues masses, with frequently hypervascularization, with portal venous enhancement. The dimensions of lesions resulted to be between minimal value of about 7-8 mm and maximum value of about 50 mm (mean 29 mm). The patients had generally poor prognosis (death for disease ‑ DOD ‑ in 5 cases; life with disease - LWD ‑ in four cases). CONCLUSION: Isolated perirenal metastases are unusual site of relapse of disease. Our study confirms the utility of CT evaluation of metastatic localization of perirenal space; this technique can also be used for focused biopsies and follow-up. This site of isolated metastases had a poor prognosis.
AIM: The aim of this paper was to report authors' experience and review of the literature on rare isolated perirenal space metastases from different primary tumors. METHODS: From January 2004 to August 2008 we evaluated retrospectively 9 patients with isolated nodular neoplastic lesions of the perirenal space with computed tomography (CT) imaging and we reported the follow-up after relapse of disease. RESULTS: All the masses resulted being of secondary tumor involvement (melanoma (2/9 cases 22.22%), esophagus-gastric tract adenocarcinoma (3/9 cases 33.33%), gynecological tumor (2/9 cases 22.22%) and gastrointestinal tumor (2/9 cases, 22.22%), diagnosed by biopsy CT-guided (2 cases), or histological post-surgical examination (1 case), or clinical and instrumental follow-up (4 cases) or postmortem examination (2 cases). The lesions were bilateral in 3 cases and monolateral in 6 cases, isolated in four cases and multiple in five cases; they have demonstrated partially necrotic parenchymal density as soft tissues masses, with frequently hypervascularization, with portal venous enhancement. The dimensions of lesions resulted to be between minimal value of about 7-8 mm and maximum value of about 50 mm (mean 29 mm). The patients had generally poor prognosis (death for disease ‑ DOD ‑ in 5 cases; life with disease - LWD ‑ in four cases). CONCLUSION: Isolated perirenal metastases are unusual site of relapse of disease. Our study confirms the utility of CT evaluation of metastatic localization of perirenal space; this technique can also be used for focused biopsies and follow-up. This site of isolated metastases had a poor prognosis.