The oncologist called the symptoms and methods of treatment of nephroblastoma

World Cancer Day is celebrated every year around the world on February 4th. By this date, a doctor of the oncological department of surgical methods of treatment of the Russian Children’s Clinical Hospital of the Russian National Research Medical University named after Izvestia told Izvestia about the oncological disease – nephroblastoma. N.I. Pirogov of the Ministry of Health of Russia Nikolai Nedochukov.

“Nephroblastoma is a malignant embryonic tumor of the kidney. It accounts for approximately 90% of cases of neoplasms of this organ in children. Most often, it is diagnosed at the age of three to six years, but the pathology also occurs in older patients, ”he explained.

The doctor attributed the first signs of the disease to an increase and asymmetry of the abdomen and gross hematuria (urine mixed with blood). In some cases, parents themselves can feel the formation in the child’s abdomen. However, in most cases, nephroblastoma does not make itself felt and is asymptomatic. Therefore, most often the tumor is found by chance on ultrasound.

Treatment for nephroblastoma typically includes preoperative chemotherapy, surgery, and postoperative chemotherapy, Nedochukov said. The volume of postoperative chemotherapy is determined after receiving a histological conclusion. Radiation therapy is also used in a certain group of patients. At the same time, without surgical intervention, the treatment of nephroblastoma is impossible.

“First of all, it is necessary to evaluate the scope of the forthcoming surgical intervention after evaluating the effect of the preoperative chemotherapy performed. With a good response and small volumes of tumor lesions, in addition to the classical removal of the entire kidney, in some cases a partial resection of the organ with a tumor is performed, ”the oncologist specified.

With bilateral kidney damage, the tactics of surgical intervention is determined in such a way as to preserve the maximum volume of one’s own renal tissue. If it is impossible to perform a organ-preserving operation after the removal of both kidneys, postoperative chemotherapy, and achieving remission at the end of treatment, a kidney transplantation may be considered.

The doctor also assessed the likelihood of a situation in which, after a complete recovery from nephroblastoma in one kidney, the disease will recur in the second.

“Metachronous nephroblastoma (the appearance of a tumor on the opposite side) is an extremely rare situation associated, as a rule, with the presence of a genetic predisposition, for example, in children with Denis-Drash syndrome, Beckwith-Wiedemann, WAGR,” Nedochukov said.

On January 30, oncologist Dmitry Korobkov dispelled popular myths about cancer. As the doctor said, oncological diseases are not only hereditary, but also sporadic, that is, random.