Metastasis of renal cell carcinoma to haemangioblastoma of the spinal cord in von Hippel–Lindau disease: case report and review of the literature

A case is presented demonstrating the unusual phenomenon of a renal cell carcinoma metastasising to a spinal haemangioblastoma in a patient with von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease. Recent advances in the molecular biology of VHL disease relevant to possible mechanisms of tumour-to-tumour metastasis are briefly reviewed.