A case of early gastric cancer with IgA nephropathy and minimal change nephrotic syndrome

Oh, Heung Young; Lee, Sang Moo; Jung, Sung Won; Youk, Chung Mi; Kim, Jin Chul; Cho, Sung Tae; Yoon, Jong Woo; Koo, Ja Ryong; Kim, Gheun Ho; Kim, Hyung Jik; Chun, Rho Won; Chae, Dong Wan; Kim, Woo Joong; Noh, Jung Woo; Lee, Hyun Soon

Abstract

The nephrotic syndrome has been reported in association with a wide variety of neoplastic disease. The relationship between early gastric cancer and glomerulonephritis has not been well elucidated. Only 6 cases (5 cases in Korea and 1 case in Japan) have been reported associated with glomerulonephritis by this time. 5 cases in Korea included three cases of membranous glomerulonephritis, one case of IgA nephropathy and membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis. Four out of six cases including presented case were mucin secreting adenocarcinomas of stomach. Minimal change disease associated with solid tumors has been reported very rarely. Three cases of colon adenocarcinoma have been reported in association with minimal change disease by this time. Complete remission of nephrotic syndrome with tumor resection without corticosteroid therapy was reported in one of three cases, but two of them had to be on corticosteroid therapy in addition to tumor resection to get complete remissions. We report a 44-year-old man case with nephrotic syndrome associated with early gastric cancer. Renal biopsy findings were indicative of minimal change disease but with scanty IgA deposition. Low grade IgA nephropathy was suggested. Endoscopic biopsy on stomach demonstrated the adenocarcinoma with signet ring cells. Serum IgA concentration was 543 mg/dL, and decreased to 336 mg/dL after tumor resection. But, owing to persistent proteinuria and acute renal failure complicated, corticosteroid therapy was applied on the 30th day after operation. So we could not prove definite relationship between early gastric cancer and the development of IgA nephropathy mimicking minimal change disease. But, it is regarded that normalized serum IgAlevel and the complete remission of nephrotic syndrome with tumor resection and corticosteroid therapy can be indirect evidences for the relationship between early gastric cancer and the development of IgA nephropathy mimicking minimal change disease.