Other names: Nephroblastoma Note: Wilms' tumor, although generally rare, is the most common abdominal malignancy in children. Wilms' tumor cells are believed to derive from pluripotent embyronic renal precursor cells. Thus, Wilms' tumors are linked to the early development of the kidney. While most are isolated sporadic tumors, approximately 10% of cases are associated with genetic syndromes an...

A predisposition to the development of certain specific and familial cancers is associated with the inheritance of a single mutated gene. In the best-characterized cases, this primary mutation is a loss of function mutation consistent with viability but resulting in neoplastic change consequent to the acquisition of a second somatic mutation at the same locus. Such genes are referred to as tumo...

We applied a subtractive hybridization approach to isolate genes differentially expressed between mature kidney and Wilms' tumor. We constructed a complementary DNA library from a total mature kidney complementary DNA subtracted by an excess of mRNA from a Wilms' tumor, WAGR4, with a germline deletion of 11p13 and a somatic loss of alleles at 11p15. Six clones presenting a differential pattern ...

A case of Wilms' tumor in a 57-year-old woman is reported. She was with a complaint of a palpable mass on the right upper abdomen. CT scan showed a non-hemogenous mass arising from the lower pole of the right kidney. After transarterial embolization, right transabdominal radical nephrectomy was performed under the diagnosis of renal cancer. Histopathological study revealed Wilms' tumor stage 2....

Wilms' tumor, an embryonic renal neoplasm diagnosed primarily in young children, can occur in either a noninheritable (sporadic) or a familial form, with the latter presenting earlier and more often at bilateral sites. Although familial Wilms' tumor is thought to develop through inherited and acquired mutational inactivation of the two alleles of predisposing tumor suppressor genes, only a smal...

It is important to develop a system to express therapeutic genes in tumor cells with sufficient selectivity for cancer gene therapy. Midkine (MK) is a newly identified heparin-binding growth factor that is transiently expressed in the early stages of retinoic acid-induced differentiation of embryonal carcinoma cells. It has been reported that many human malignant tumors express high levels of M...