Hypernephroma or Mesothelioma of the Kidney

Our plain-English summary of Hypernephroma or Mesothelioma of the Kidney, by J. Swain (The Bristol Medico-chirurgical Journal, 1913).

The study

• Author: J. Swain
• Journal: The Bristol Medico-chirurgical Journal
• Published: 1913;31(121):213-219
• Read it: PubMed · Free full text

In plain English

This 1913 article by a Bristol professor of surgery described the kidney tumour then called hypernephroma, outlined other writers' theories of its origin, and reported two of the author's own patients. Asbestos is not mentioned. The "mesothelioma" in the title refers to a theory credited to another writer, Wilson, that these tumours grow from kidney-forming tissue that never developed normally. The article concerns kidney tumours only and does not discuss mesothelioma of the pleura or peritoneum. In the first case, a woman aged 51 had a coconut-sized tumour removed with her left kidney in May 1911. She recovered well, and a year later there was no sign of recurrence. In 1913 she declined, with signs of a probable spread to the lung and pleura, and in July her doctor wrote that the growth continued to spread. In the second case, a man aged 52 had a right kidney tumour removed in June 1912. He died that October with secondary deposits in the liver and abdomen. The author concluded that symptoms may be slight until late in the disease. The author also concluded that operation was the only rational treatment, provided the tumour was not fixed, there were no signs of metastasis in the long bones or other parts, and the other kidney was healthy.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Clinical description of a kidney tumour, with a discussion of other writers' theories and two case reports from the author's own surgical practice
• Who was studied: Two patients treated by the author in Bristol in 1911 to 1913: a woman aged 51 (Case 1) and a man aged 52 (Case 2), both with a kidney tumour
• Main results:
  • Case 1 (woman aged 51): a tumour about the size of a coconut, at the upper pole of the left kidney, was removed with the kidney in May 1911. She made an uninterrupted recovery and gained 13 lb by the end of the year.
  • Case 1: a year after the operation there was no sign of recurrence.
  • Case 1: in 1913 her health declined, with findings indicating a probable metastatic deposit in the lung and adjacent pleura. In July 1913 her medical attendant wrote that the growth continued to spread.
  • Case 2 (man aged 52): a lobulated, coconut-sized tumour was removed with the right kidney in June 1912. He went home about three weeks later but died in the October after the operation, with secondary deposits in the liver and abdomen.
  • The author wrote that sudden, profuse blood in the urine is said to be a common symptom, but the author had not found it so. The first patient had no blood in the urine.
• The authors' conclusion: The author's view was that symptoms may be insignificant until a late stage of the disease. The author also held that operation was the only rational treatment, provided the tumour was not fixed, there were no signs of metastasis in the long bones or other parts, and the other kidney was healthy.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Mesothelioma.

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