Overview
Wilms’ tumor, a rare kidney cancer condition also known as nephroblastoma, is the most common cancer of the kidneys found in children. Wilms’ tumor most often affects children ages 3 to 4 and becomes much less common after age 5 affecting just one kidney, but at times can also be found in both kidneys at the same time. Advancements in the diagnosis and treatment of Wilms’ tumor have progressed and with appropriate treatment techniques.
Symptoms
Though the symptoms for Wilms’ tumor vary widely , however few of the common Signs and symptoms of Wilms’ tumor are:
Causes
In most of the cases, heredity may play a role in Wilms’ tumor, though this is rare. Cancer cells starts multiplying with increasing errors in their DNA. The errors allow the cells to grow and multiply nonstop with a longer life compared to other cells. The accumulating cells results into a tumor. In Wilms’ tumor, this process occurs mostly in the kidney cells. In rarest of the cases, the errors in DNA that lead to Wilms’ tumor are passed on genetically, from parents to children. While in most other cases, there is no known connection between parents and children that may lead to cancer.
Diagnosis
Few of the diagnostic techniques are conducted to detect this tumor are:
Treatment
The major form of treatment undertaken for this type of tumours includes surgery, chemotherapyand radiation therapy. Since this is commonly found in children, there is a permutation of treatment that follows. Surgery is usually the first treatment that is applied to remove the tumor. In complicated cases of the tumor where in the cancer might have spread into the blood vessels or both kidneys either chemotherapy or radiation therapy (or both) might be used to try to shrink the tumor before surgery. The precise drugs and treatment course might vary from case to case depending on the condition of complication.
