Natural History and Treatment of Wilms's Tumour: An Analysis of 335 Cases Occurring in England and Wales 1962-6

Abstract

1962-6. No case without histological confirmation has been included. The information required for the dead children was obtained from the hospital notes, while for most of the surviving children the general practitioners interviewed the mothers and loaned to us the relevant hospital letters. Consultants were asked to supply the necessary details for the remainder. On checking the records against the death certificates the inaccuracy of the latter was found to be about 8 %. Nineteen cases certified as Wilms's tumour had to be discarded-two-thirds because the necropsy findings did not confirm the death certificate diagnosis, and one-third on account of copying errors owing to the similarity of the words "neuroblastoma" and "nephroblastoma."

Declining mortality and improving survival from Wilms' tumor

“…Differences in survival do not adequately account for the trend toward female predominance in mortality from kidney cancer. Survival did not vary significantly by sex in the End Results Series or in another large survey of Wilms' tumors (10). The available incidence data, however, showed a parallel trend toward female predominance, suggesting the possibility of sex differences in exposure or susceptibility to etiologic factors.…”

Ovarian failure following abdominal irradiation in childhood

“…The main pathological diagnosis in this group of patients was nephroblastoma, which represents approximately 8% of all childhood malignancy (Ledlie et al, 1970). There has been a considerable improvement in the cure rate of this tumour after the addition of cyclic chemotherapy to surgery and irradiation.…”

Solitary spinal metastasi from Wilms' tumor

“…The overall incidence of skeletal metastases from classical Wilms' tumor is 10-13% [1]. In most cases, skeletal metastases are found in conjunction with metastases elsewhere, notably pulmonary.…”