Treatments for Wilms tumour

If your child has Wilms tumour, the healthcare team will create a treatment plan just for your child. It will be based on your child’s health and specific information about the cancer. When deciding which treatments to offer for Wilms tumour, the healthcare team will consider:

• the type of Wilms tumour (favourable or anaplastic histology)
• the stage of Wilms tumour
• your child’s age
• your child’s overall health
• chromosome changes

There are two major approaches to treatment of Wilms tumour. In North America, most children are treated according to the National Wilms Tumor Study (NWTS) and Children’s Oncology Group (COG) protocols. This is the approach used in Canada. In Europe and other parts of the world, most children are treated according to the International Society of Pediatric Oncology (SIOP) protocols. The main difference in these protocols is that the NWTS and COG usually recommend removal or biopsy of the kidney tumour first, while the SIOP usually recommends chemotherapy first based on imaging.