Carcinoma of the collecting ducts of Bellini and renal medullary carcinoma are rare aggressive neoplasms of putative distal nephron origin. First described in 1949, case reports and review articles constitute a major source of information on collecting duct carcinoma, whereas Davis and colleagues and the pediatric tumor registry have contributed the seminal works on renal medullary carcinoma.
Here we present a detailed study of collecting duct carcinoma (n = 39) and renal medullary carcinoma (n = 13), characterizing these rare neoplasms and analyzing their interrelationship.