Wilms Tumor

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Wilms Tumor: Fast Facts

• Wilms tumor, also known as nephroblastoma, is a rare kidney cancer that usually occurs in children younger than age 5. It arises from embryonal kidney tissues that have normally disappeared at the time of birth and may affect one or both kidneys.
• Wilms tumor occurs in about one in 10,000 children. It is the second most common solid tumor in children, being less common than brain tumor, and makes up about 7 percent of all childhood cancers. Several different types of genetic alteration are known to play a role in the origin of some Wilms tumors but no environmental causes have yet been identified.

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Wilms Tumor: Some of Our Key Research

Since 1975 the Hutchinson Center has housed the statistical center for the National Wilms Tumor Study, a childhood cancer research consortium. In 2002 the NWTS merged its clinical trial work with three other childhood cancer clinical trial groups to form the Children's Oncology Group. The NWTS continues its research on late effects of cancer treatment through its NWTS Late Effects in Wilms Tumor Survivors and Offspring protocol.

The Hutchinson Center continues to maintain one of the longest-running pediatric cancer databases in the United States, tracking more than 6,000 survivors from among the nearly 10,000 patients with Wilms tumor registered with the study since its inception in 1969.

During more than three decades, the NWTS conducted five major clinical trials aimed at determining which drugs or drug combinations were most effective for treating Wilms tumor while minimizing the amount of radiation used.

The statistical center houses the world’s largest collection of clinical information on Wilms tumor, allowing researchers to document the adverse effects of both chemotherapy and various doses of radiation on skeletal and muscle development; the development of second tumors including breast, colon and primary liver cancers at relatively young ages; and, in the case of female patients, poor pregnancy outcomes.

Tracking the long-term health of Wilms Tumor survivors
Today, the research group primarily focuses on the long-term follow-up of survivors from the earlier clinical trials and their offspring. One of the study's main objectives is to chart the death rates for this group of patients in comparison to those for the general population.

Researchers are also working to track the incidence of tumors in other parts of the body, congestive heart failure, restrictive pulmonary disease, end-stage renal disease and other medical conditions that are likely to have resulted either from treatment or from the same biological factors that led to the Wilms tumor in the first place.

Their hope is to identify the particular treatments and biological risk factors that predispose patients to these "late effects," so that such treatments can be avoided to the extent possible in patients deemed to be at high risk for such complications.

As a result of this extensive follow-up of Wilms tumor patients and the ongoing late effects study, we have greater insight into potential long-term effects of radiation and chemotherapy on the subsequent development and health of these children, and we have developed more effective treatments with fewer long-term side effects.

Learn more:
Have (enormous) data, will cure
The world's largest tracking of Wilms-tumor patients and statistics allows researchers to boost survival and ease side effects for the childhood disease.

The data backbone
The Wilms study has come a long way since the center's pre-computer plotting of points on graph paper.

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Wilms Tumor: More Resources

• Every advance in cancer treatment in recent years has come out of clinical trials that test innovative medical approaches on patients. Find out more about clinical trials on Wilms tumor. »

• The Hutchinson Center also conducts ongoing cancer-prevention studies that depend on participation of healthy volunteers. Learn more about getting involved in research studies. » 

• In need of medical attention for colorectal cancer? Visit the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance to get help. »

• The Hutchinson Center is on a mission to eliminate cancer and related diseases as causes of human suffering and death, and you can help. Make a gift today. »

 

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