Wilms’ Tumor Treatment Options

Wilms’ Tumor is treated employing the prevalent approaches of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy on the basis of the staging of the cancer and the overall health of the child.

Surgery

This widely used treatment in case of Wilms’ Tumor is conducted in any of the below mentioned ways:

• Partial Nephrectomy
  The method involves the surgical removal of the cancer and a section of the kidney just adjoining the cancer. It classically is performed solely in exceptional situations like in a scenario where there has been damage to the other kidney or has previously been taken out.
• Simple Nephrectomy
  This method involves complete removal of a kidney after which the second kidney would be donning the task of blood purification process.
• Radical Nephrectomy
  This method is carried out for the total removal of the kidney along with adjacently located tissues. During this procedure few of the lymph nodes could additionally be taken out.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy involves the deployment of cancer-killing drugs that could be offered either in pill form or could be introduced inside the body via a needle intravenously or intramuscularly. This method of treatment is known as systemic therapy as the drugs after gaining entry into the blood stream would follow their course all throughout the body killing cancerous cells on their way. Chemotherapy offered subsequent to an operative procedure in a situation wherein there are no identified cancerous cells is known as adjuvant therapy.

Usage of elevated dosages of chemotherapy for annihilating cancerous cells could harm the bone marrow, the tissues responsible for blood formation present in the bones. In case elevated chemotherapy dosages are necessary for the treatment of cancer, then prior to the treatment commencing a small quantity of bone marrow is removed from the bones to be maintained in a deep freeze state till it is required in future. Subsequent to chemotherapy, the bone marrow is re-infused back intravenously via a needle. This form of treatment is known as autologous bone marrow reinfusion.

Radiation Therapy

This treatment procedure employs X-rays or any kind of elevated energy beams for obliterating cancerous cells and shrivelling the tumors. Radiation in case of Wilms’ tumor generally is offered via a device located outside the patient’s body, additionally known as external radiation therapy. Radiation therapy could be employed either prior to or subsequent to surgical intervention and chemotherapy.

Many patients following numerous years after undergoing radiation and chemotherapy developed another diverse kind of cancer as a consequence.