Hypernephroma-familial occurrence in one family.

Abstract

Three cases of hypernephroma have been found in one family. The father had died from a kidney tumor and the mother from cancer, but no autopsies were performed. Of their five children, three developed hypernephroma, the diagnoses being confirmed by biopsy in a son who died at age 52, at autopsy in a daughter who died at age 54, and at autopsy in a son who died, with the additional finding of polycythemia vera, at age 62. The disease has not been observed among members of the third generation, but none have as yet attained the above ages. The possibility that hypernephroma might have a familial tendency has not been considered in the accessible literature but is suggested by this series of cases.