Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center and the Gill Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s Medical Center, Dallas, have made significant progress in defining new genetic causes of Wilms tumor, a type of kidney cancer found only in children.
Wilms tumor is the most common childhood genitourinary tract cancer and the third most common solid tumor of childhood.
“While most children with Wilms tumor are thankfully cured, those with more aggressive tumors do poorly, and we are increasingly concerned about the long-term adverse side effects of chemotherapy in Wilms tumor patients. We wanted to know — what are the genetic causes of Wilms tumor in children and what are the opportunities for targeted therapies? To answer these questions, you have to identify genes that are mutated in the cancer,” said Dr. James Amatruda, associate professor of pediatrics, molecular biology, and internal medicine at UT Southwestern and senior author for the study.
Read the full, original story: New gene mutations for Wilms tumor found
