Scientists Home in on the Origins of Childhood Kidney Cancer
02 December 2008 - Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research have made significant progress in pinpointing two new risk factors associated with the most common childhood kidney cancer, known as Wilms tumour.
The study found that specific genetic changes in certain cells may cause childhood kidney cancer. It involved 437 children with Wilms tumour from ten British childhood cancer centres and 29 families with more than one child with this form of cancer from around the world.
Lead scientist, Dr Chris Jones at The Institute of Cancer Research said the findings could lead to earlier diagnosis by doctors.
“This discovery is a significant step forward and our findings will help locate those who are most at risk and hopefully lead to earlier diagnosis and better monitoring for patients. Around one per cent of children are born with clusters of embryonic cells in their kidneys left over from growing in the womb. One in a hundred of these children may then go on to develop a Wilms tumour. With the information from this study, doctors will be able to focus on which of these clusters pose the biggest threat of developing into cancer.”
The latest advance follows research published in November, which showed that five per cent of children with Wilms tumour develop the condition because they have defects in growth genes on chromosome 11.
