Treatment options for renal cell carcinoma in patients with von Hippel-Lindau disease

We report on a family with von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease and atypically aggressive renal cell carcinoma. A woman and her brother had progressive VHL disease with multiple tumors in their kidneys. One patient developed pulmonary metastases. The patient who had localized disease received radiofrequency ablation with complete destruction of tumors. Cytoreductive nephrectomy was performed in the case of metastatic disease, following which sunitinib maleate (50 mg orally daily, 4 weeks on, 2 weeks off) was given. Examination after two treatment cycles showed complete regression of all metastases. For 19 months, the patients have been under active observation without disease progression. Also, we detected high immunohistochemical expression of vascular endothelial growth factor receptors 1 and 2 in the cytoplasm and nuclei of tumor cells.