What Are The Stages Of Wilms Tumor & What Is The Survival Rate?

Wilms tumor refers to a specific type of kidney cancer and it often takes place in children. This type of kidney cancer mainly affects children from 3 years to 4 years age, while is less common among 5 years kids. In most of the cases, Wilms tumor takes place in a single kidney even though it may take place in both kidneys of a child simultaneously.

According to the staging system designed by the Children Oncology Group, there are 5 different stages to determine the severity of Wilms tumor among children. Accordingly-

In stage I of Wilms tumor, the tumor remains present in only one kidney and doctors remove it completely via surgery. In this case, nephrologists do not break the renal capsule or the tissue layer surrounding the patient’s kidney at the time of his/her surgery. Moreover, in stage I, cancer does not grow to enter blood vessels within or surrounding the kidney.⁽²⁾

In the second stage, the tumor grows beyond one’s kidney i.e. within the surrounding blood vessels or fatty tissues near the respective kidney. However, surgeons remove it completely without the requirement of leaving behind any apparent cancer. Surrounding lymph nodes in the second stag do not possess any type of cancer.

Note-In both stage I and stage II, doctors do not perform a biopsy of the tumor prior to surgery.⁽²⁾

In the third stage, surgeons cannot remove the Wilms tumor completely. Instead, it presents after the surgery but remains limited to the belly or abdominal area. In addition, a patient in the third stage of Wilms tumor has anyone or group of the following features-

• The cancer spreads to lymph nodes in the pelvis or abdomen but does not reach to any of the distant lymph nodes, like for instance the ones within the chest.
• The growth of cancer takes place into the surrounding vital structures, because of which complete removal of cancer/tumor becomes almost impossible for the doctor.
• Tumor implants or tumor deposition remains present across the inner lining of the patient’s abdominal area.
• Cancer cells remain present at the edge of any sample removed via surgery i.e. a sign of the presence of a few cancer cells after the surgery.
• Stage III also involves spilling of cancer cells within the abdominal space at the time of or before the surgery.
• The removal of the tumor takes place in multiple pieces separately.

Here, doctors conduct a biopsy of the tumor before they remove it with surgery.

In stage IV of Wilms Tumor, cancer spreads through the patient’s blood to his/her organs away from the two kidneys. These include lymph nodes, bones, brain, liver, and lungs.

Stage V is the last stage of the Wilms tumor and accordingly, tumors remain spread in both kidneys during the diagnosis.⁽²⁾

• 5-Year Survival Rate As Per Stages of Wilms Tumor
• The 5-year survival rate associated with Wilms Tumor tells you about the exact percent of kids live minimum 5 years after they underwent diagnose with cancer. Accordingly,
• The 5-year survival rate in case of children suffering from Wilms Tumor is about 93 percent.
• However, the survival rate may vary in accordance with the specific stage of the cancer disease.
• This means 4-year survival rate for children in stage I, stage II and stage III of tumors is between 95 percent and 100 percent.
• On the other side, if we talk about 4-year survival rate in case of children in stage IV and state V, we should say that their survival rate is minimum 85 percent and maximum 100percent.

Survival rates for Wilms Tumors with histology of focal anaplastic are often low in each of the aforementioned categories or stages i.e. from 70 percent to up to 95 percent.
Other than this, tumors in combination with a diffused form of anaplastic history have further low survival rates i.e. between 30 percent and 85 percent regardless of the specific stage of the Wilms Tumor.⁽¹⁾

To conclude we should say that the problem of cancer or Wilms Tumor becomes worse with stages and the survival rate depends on different aspects, including the specific stages of Wilms Tumor and its combination with anaplastic histology.

References-

1. https://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/wilms-tumor-childhood/statistics
2. https://www.cancer.org/cancer/wilms-tumor/detection-diagnosis-staging/staging.html

Also Read:

• Wilms’ Tumor: Causes, Symptoms, Treatment, Stages, Survival Rate, Prognosis