Wilms' Tumor: The Basics

What is a Wilms' Tumor?

Wilms' tumor (WT) is also known as nephroblastoma, a medical word that basically means an embryonic ("blast") tumor ("oma") of the kidney ("nephro"). It is named after Max Wilms, the physician who first described this disease. Wilms' tumor represents about 6% of all childhood cancers. Overall, it is the fourth most common tumor of childhood, and is the most common pediatric tumor of the abdomen. The tumor usually only affects one kidney (unilateral WT), but can involve both kidneys (bilateral WT) in up to 4-8% of cases.

How common is Wilms' Tumor?

There are just under 500 new cases of WT yearly in the United States .The rate of new cases is 8.1 for every million Caucasian children less than 15 years of age.

Who gets Wilms' Tumor?

As mentioned above, WT is a cancer of children, ie: a pediatric cancer. Both boys and girls can be affected, with girls having a slightly higher risk. Girls have an approximately 10% higher risk of developing WT. Girls are also 70% more likely to have both kidneys involved compared with boys. The median age at time of diagnosis is 37 months in boys -- about 3.1 years old -- and 43 months in girls -- almost 4 years old. This is for unilateral WT. In cases of bilateral WT, the median ages are younger, about 24 months for boys and 31 months for girls. More than 75% of all WT is diagnosed before the age of 5 years and 95% prior to the age of 10 years.

Interestingly, WT is about 3 times more common among African-American children compared to East Asian children. The rates for Caucasian kids, both in the United States and in Europe, fall somewhere in between.

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