Membranes nephropathy associated with renal cell carcinoma. Evidence against a role of renal tubular or tumor antibodies in pathogenesis.

A patient with the nephrotic syndrome due to membranous nephropathy was found to have renal cell carcinoma. Since membranous nephropathy in patients with malignancies has been attributed to a tumor antigen-antibody complex form of glomerulonephritis, an attempt was made to implicate tumor antigens and/or renal tubular epithelial antigens in the pathogenesis of membranous nephropathy in our patient with renal cell carcinoma. Antibodies directed against tumor antigens and renal tubular antigens and renal tubular eipthelial antigens were sought in his serum and in eluates of his glomeruli; no such antibodies were found. The concurrence of the two renal lesions may have been fortuitous in this patient. However, their association temporally suggests that they were related, and our immunologic studies demonstrate that tumor antigen-antibody complexes are not invariably involved in the pathogenesis of malignancy-associated membranous nephropathy.