Wilms' tumor: single centre retrospective study from South India

Wilms' tumor is the most common malignant renal tumor in paediatric age group, and is classically managed by multimodal treatment which involves surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The last few decades have seen a dramatic change in the prognosis of this disease, which once was a uniformly lethal malignancy. While there is plenty of data in world literature on the outcome of Wilms' tumor, there is paucity of data from India. Hence, we conducted the present study to analyze the outcome of Wilms' tumor at our institute. To study the clinicopathologic profile and outcome of Wilms' tumor with NWTS (National Wilms' Tumor Study Group) IV protocol. Sixty-one patients with histopathological proven diagnosis of Wilms' tumor and had received treatment at our institute from Jan 2003 through Dec 2010 were included for analysis. Patients received treatment based on NWTS IV protocol. Patients were analysed for overall survival and event free survival and these outcomes were correlated with age, sex, stage at presentation and histology. Favourable histology which included focal anaplasia was found in 80.3 % while unfavourable histology was elicited in 19.7 % of the cases. The estimated 5 year event-free survival was 83.3 % and overall survival was 85.2 %. Tumour histology was the single most important factor predicting the survival. Patients with childhood Wilms' still present very late in our setting, this poses management challenges as large tumor are technically difficult to deliver at surgery. Histology has a crucial role in outcome of this disease. With multidisciplinary approach, similar survival rates to National Wilms' Tumor Study Group seems to be achievable even in Indian scenario.