Mucinous Tubular and Spindle Cell Carcinoma: A Review of Histopathology and Clinical and Prognostic Implications

Abstract

Mucinous tubular and spindle cell carcinomas are rare kidney tumors with generally indolent behavior. As the name suggests, classic histomorphology reveals bland spindle cells, tubules, and mucinous stroma. Uncommon histologic features include mucin-poor stroma, high nuclear grade, cellular pleomorphism, and presence of necrosis. Rare cases can show aggressive growth and distant metastasis. Mucinous tubular and spindle cell carcinoma has characteristic chromosomal abnormalities and the molecular signature remains the same, irrespective of the varied histomorphology.

Renal Mucinous Tubular and Spindle Cell Carcinoma: A Report of Two Cases and Literature Review

“…MTSCC has a wide age distribution which ranges between 13 to 82 years old and an average of 53 years old. There are a female predominance and a 1: 4 man to women ratio [4,6,13,14,15].…”

“…On gross examination, mostly occur as a solid mass in the renal cortex and are partially encapsulated. The cut surface is usually shiny, bulging and mucoid and shows pale, grey or homogenous tan colors [5,6,14].…”

“…Microscopic sections feature a renal epithelial neoplasm with variable components of tubular or cord-like growth architecture, spindle cell areas and extracellular basophilic mucinous stroma [6,10,13]. Necrosis, mucin-poor stroma, cellular pleomorphism, and high nuclear grade are uncommon.…”

“…It accounts for less than 1% of all kidney tumors and shows a higher prevalence in women. Until 2015, there were less than 100 cases reported in the literature [2][3][4][5][6]. MTSCC may be associated with monosomy 1, 4, 6, 8, 13 or 14 and trisomy 7, 11, 16 or 17.…”

“…MTSCC may be associated with monosomy 1, 4, 6, 8, 13 or 14 and trisomy 7, 11, 16 or 17. Microscopically, the neoplasm is characterized tubular growth pattern of uniform cuboidal cells with eosinophilic cytoplasm which transition to anastomosing spindle cells in a myxoid and bubbly with abundant extracellular mucin stroma [1,2,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. MTSCC is a low malignant potential cancer that rarely relapses or metastasizes [5,12].…”