| Wilms tumor is the most common childhood cancer of the kidney and it represents about 5-6% of all childhood cancers, with an incidence of about 1 out of every 7 million children under the age of 15.
Children with Wilms are usually diagnosed around the age of 3 years, when they are noted to have a mass on one side of their abdomen. This mass commonly does not cause any symptoms, but some children can have abdominal pain, vomiting, microscopic or gross hematuria (blood in the urine), high blood pressure (hypertension), anemia (low red blood counts), or fever.
Diagnosis is usually made by an ultrasound and/or a computed tomography (CT) scan that shows the mass to be inside the kidney. Your child may also have a chest x-ray or CT scan of the chest to look for lung metastases.
Treatment includes surgical removal of the kidney that is affected by the tumor. In addition to surgery, other treatments may include radiation and/or chemotherapy.
Wilms tumor is associated more commonly with certain syndromes and congenital anomalies, including aniridia (absence of the iris of the eye), hemihypertrophy (increased size of one part of the body as compared to the other side), malformations of the genitalia, Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome, DRASH syndrome, and WAGR syndrome. Your child may need screening ultrasounds of the kidneys until he is 4-5 years old to look for Wilms tumor if he has any of these conditions (discuss it with your doctor if your child is at risk to see if this is necessary).
Prognosis depends on the stage of the tumor (if it is limited to the inside of the kidney vs metastasis, etc.), and the tumor's subtype.
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