First Report of Renal Cell Carcinoma Metastasizing to the Clivus in a Pediatric Patient.

BACKGROUND

The clivus is a rare site of tumor occurrence in general, and metastases to this site are especially rare. Renal cell carcinoma is an uncommon entity in the pediatric population. Although not infrequent in adults, when it does occur, metastases to the clivus are extremely uncommon, only having been reported 3 times in the literature. All of these cases involved adults in their sixth decade.

CASE DESCRIPTION

We present the first report in the literature of renal cell carcinoma occurring in a pediatric patient and spreading to the clivus. This 11-year-old girl presented with headaches and diplopia based on a left-sided sixth cranial nerve palsy, in the context of a wasting disease. She was also found to have vague abdominal fullness, although it was only after biopsy of a clivus lesion identified on brain scanning that its true nature became apparent, prompting abdominal scans, which revealed a renal mass with hepatic metastases.

CONCLUSIONS

This article reports for the first time in the literature the spread of a translocation renal cell carcinoma to the clivus in a young child. This serves to alert practitioners to this possibility when faced with a similar scenario.