Carcinomas renales con células claras

We review in this paper the concept of renal cell carcinoma with clear cells, a quite frequent histological finding in the pathologist's daily work. This viewpoint is pertinent because not all the renal cell carcinomas with clear cells are conventional clear cell renal cell carcinomas. In fact, some of them are other entities on the light of the new WHO classification. This purely morphological approach does not dissent from this classification of renal tumours in adults. The revision is addressed more to the general pathologist who usually faces a wide variety of cases often under clinical pressure than to the subspecialist, who in general analyzes many complex cases of renal cancer in depth using sophisticated technical tools. Renal cell carcinoma related to von Hippel-Lindau disease is reviewed first because many of the genetic disorders underlying this disease are also present in sporadic, conventional renal cell clear cell carcinoma. Latter, conventional renal cell clear cell carcinomas, other familial, non von Hippel-Lindau associated renal cell carcinomas, translocation carcinomas, the hereditary papillary renal cell carcinoma, some carcinomas associated to Tuberous Sclerosis and to Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome, chromophobe renal cell carcinomas and carcinomas associated to end-stage renal disease are reviewed.