Wilms Tumors

Children with a suspected or diagnosed Wilms tumor should be immediately referred to a pediatric cancer specialist for evaluation and treatment. Children have an overall five-year survival rate of 90%. As similarly mentioned in the diagnostic protocol for Wilms tumor, the COG and SIOP each have their own treatment protocols. Both protocols have statistically similar clinical outcomes, however, the focus for this section will follow the COG protocol.
The COG protocol is advantageous in promoting the assessment of histological diagnosis, preventing unnecessary chemotherapy for patients with benign tumors, and bases itself upon primary surgical resection of the lesion as the initial treatment for children, even if this does not apply to children with a bilateral case. Chemotherapy follows surgical removal; additionally, patients with stage III and IV tumors characteristically receive radiation therapy (P). Treatment with a chemotherapeutic agent is individualized and entirely dependent upon the stage of the tumor and histological analysis.
Patients diagnosed with a
Currently, no established protocol exists for treating recurrent Wilms tumor, although multiagent chemotherapy regimens have been used with variable success (P). As previously mentioned, over the past sixty years, incredible diagnostic and therapeutic advancements have increased the five-year survival rate for Wilms tumor patients to 90%, which is among the highest for all cancers, starkly contrasting the five-year survival rate of 20% in the 1950’s. Still, overall survival rate is dependent on characterization of the tumor and those falling under the low risk category have the highest long-term survival rates, while patients with an anaplastic Wilms tumor have the lowest long-term survival rate