Wilms Tumor
Wilms' tumor is the most common form of kidney cancer in children. It is also called nephroblastoma. "Nephro" means kidney, and a "blastoma" is a tumor made of embryonic tissue that has not yet fully developed.
Wilms' tumor was named after a German surgeon, Max Wilms, who published the first comprehensive review of the disease in 1899.
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The kidneys are a pair of organs located inside the body near the middle of the back. In adults, each kidney is about the size of a fist. Shaped like the beans that carry their name, the kidneys filter waste out of the bloodstream, creating urine which passes into the bladder.
The kidneys, like all organs of the body develop while a baby is still in the womb. Wilms' tumor arises when a mistake occurs in a single embryonic or immature kidney cell. Rather than multiplying normally to become mature kidney cells, this change causes multiplication of new cells that grow out of control, eventually resulting in a mass called Wilms' tumor.
Usually, Wilms' tumor arises in one kidney (unilateral), but sometimes it can occur in both kidneys (bilateral). A Wilms' tumor may grow without being detected until it becomes quite large. However, most are discovered before they have spread to other parts of the body.
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