Wilms' tumour treated at Stanley Hospital in a newborn

CHENNAI: One of the very rare disorders among newborns, called Wilms' tumor disorder was successfully treated at Stanley Medical College and Government Hospital recently. There have been only about 15 cases of newborn Wilms' disorder reported throughout the world so far, thus, specialised care is very important, say doctors.

A two hour born female child was taken to the hospital with bulging of the abdomen and distension. Upon examination, the doctors detected abdominal masses. In the case of Wilms', most often these tumours originate from the kidney. Of those diagnosed prenatally, nearly half of the cases present with a palpable abdominal mass.

"Congenital renal tumors however, are exceedingly rare, representing only 7 percent of all neonatal tumors. The female child with a birth weight of 2.5 kg was referred to our institution at 2 hours of life with complaints of abdominal distension since birth. On arrival, the baby was clinically stable and examination of the abdomen revealed distension with dilated veins," says Dr Mohan Kumar, consultant paediatric surgeon at Stanley Medical College and Hospital.

Upon examination, the doctors found that a tumor was infiltrating the right kidney. The doctors performed a nephroureterectomy surgery within a week of the child's birth and a 90-gram renal mass was sent for biopsy which revealed it to be Wilms’ tumor.

Dr Mohan said that the baby recovered well without any complications and adjuvant chemotherapy was started after the surgery. The child is on follow up and is about eight months old and adjuvant chemotherapy has been completed and the child is doing well without any recurrence. "The hospital performed the surgery free of cost and even though newborns Wilms' tumour is rare, the hospital has the expertise to treat it,' he said.

Talking about the surgery, he said that solid renal masses need to be diagnosed at an early stage. Wilms’ tumor accounts for 6 percent of paediatric malignancies and more than 95 percent of renal tumors, with most children presenting between the ages of 12 to 36 months. Neonatal presentation of Wilms’ is very rare with an incidence of only 0.16 percent. So far, only 15 cases of neonatal Wilms’ tumor have been reported in literature," added Dr Mohan.