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The following is a summary of “Construction and validation of a predictive model for malignant tumors in patients with membranous nephropathy,” published in the March 2025 issue of BMC Nephrology by Zhai et al. 

The link between membranous nephropathy (MN) and malignant tumors is well known, but most studies focus on cases within a year of diagnosis. Patients outside this timeframe remain understudied. 

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to analyze the clinicopathological features of membranous nephropathy patients with malignant tumors. A predictive model was developed to assess malignancy risk in these patients. 

They analyzed 174 patients with MN, malignant tumors and 604 patients with idiopathic membranous nephropathy (IMN) without malignant tumors. They randomly allocated them into a training cohort (n=584) and a validation cohort (n=194) in a 3:1 ratio. They developed a predictive model using regression analysis and evaluated its performance with area under the ROC curve (AUC), calibration curve, and decision curve analysis (DCA). 

The results showed that patients with MN complicated with malignant tumors had higher glomerular deposition rates of IgG1, IgG2, IgG3, and PLA2R and lower IgG4. A predictive model based on independent risk factors showed excellent validation performance. 

Investigators developed a predictive model using pathological parameters to estimate malignancy risk in patients with MN. It helped clinicians in decision-making and tumor screening at diagnosis. 

Source: bmcnephrol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12882-025-04053-y