Pan-cytokeratin immunoexpression in Wilms' tumors: a simple approach for understanding tumor epithelial differentiation

Os tumores de Wilms são alguns dos mais freqüentes tumores sólidos da infância e reconhecidamente um modelo para a compreensão da patogênese dos tumores embrionários. As citoqueratinas são proteínas intracelulares presentes em tecidos de origem epitelial. Estudamos a imunoexpressão da pan-citoqueratina AE1AE3 em 24 tumores de Wilms, dentre ao quais 15 continham também tecidos renais não-neoplásicos e 12 apresentavam restos nefrogênicos em blocos de parafina, para avaliar a diferenciação epitelial no desenvolvimento dos tumores de Wilms. Observamos aumento na intensidade de expressão de AE1AE3 no componente epitelial dos tumores de Wilms diretamente relacionado ao grau de maturação das estruturas epiteliais correspondentes aos ductos coletores.

Wilms' tumor: analysis of thirty cases.

Thirty cases of Wilms' tumor who had been treated at the Ramathibodi Hospital from January 1970 to December 1982 were analysed retrospectively. There were 14 boys and 16 girls, aged 6 months to 7 years (mean age was 2 years). The right kidney was involved in 12 cases, the left side involvement in 18 cases. Other than the abdominal mass, the common signs and symptoms were hematuria (30%) and hypertension (13.3%). The congenital anomalies were found in 2 cases. There was an increase in VMA in three of the six cases determined for VMA:creatine ratio and VMA in 24 hours urine. Seven cases (23.3%) had nephrectomy done in other hospitals. Ninety percent of the patients came in with the stage II-IV, only 10% had stage I. The treatment consisted of surgery, radiation therapy, actinomycin-D, vincristine and adriamycin. Eight patients (26.6%) were lost to follow-up. The cure rate in stage II, III and IV were 71.4%, 50% and 29% respectively. The serious surgical complications include a case of shock due to excessive bleeding and another case of sudden death during the operation due to the tumor emboli from the inferior vena cava to the main pulmonary and both bronchial arteries.