A Contemporary Clinicopathologic Analysis of Primary Sarcomas of the Perinephric Soft Tissue and Hilar Vessels Including a Subset Secondarily Involving the Kidney

A variety of primary malignant mesenchymal neoplasms can arise from the perinephric soft tissue and hilar vessels and potentially involve the kidney, mimicking primary renal tumors. A search was made at our institution for patients that underwent radical nephrectomy with associated perinephric or hilar sarcomas from 2010 to 2021. Twenty-six patients were identified. Mean patient age was 60 years (range: 34–83 years), with 16 (62%) females and 10 (38%) males. The mean tumor size was 21.6 cm (range: 8.1–36.5 cm). Among the perinephric/retroperitoneal sarcomas, 14/20 (70%) were dedifferentiated liposarcoma, 4/20 (20%) were well-differentiated liposarcoma, and 2/20 (10%) were leiomyosarcoma. There were 4 grade 1 (20%; all well-differentiated liposarcoma), 9 grade 2 (45%), and 7 grade 3 (35%) tumors. All 6 sarcomas arising from the renal vein/inferior vena cava were leiomyosarcoma: grade 2 in 1 (17%), grade 3 in 4 (67%), and ungraded (due to neoadjuvant therapy effect) in 1 (17%) patient. Four of the 26 (15%) tumors involved the ipsilateral kidney. All 4 tumors were grade 3 sarcomas. On follow-up, 8/26 (31%) patients developed local recurrence and/or metastasis. The mean time for recurrence was 22 months (range: 7–48 months). Two patients progressed with metastasis to the lungs, both of which were grade 3 leiomyosarcoma, and appeared 11 months after the initial diagnosis. Our data suggest that while local recurrence is prevalent with most subtypes of perinephric sarcomas, high-grade leiomyosarcoma has a distinct proclivity for distant metastasis, with the lungs being the most common site.