The effect of preoperative chemotherapy on histological subtyping and staging of Wilms tumors: The United Kingdom Children's Cancer Study Group (UKCCSG) Wilms tumor trial 3 (UKW3) experience

BACKGROUND

Two principal approaches to Wilms tumor (WT) treatment are immediate surgery (IS) and preoperative chemotherapy (PCT), and both treatments use the risk-adapted approach that includes histological subclassification of the tumor, combined with additional prognostic factors. In the UKW3 trial, these two approaches were compared. The aim of the present study was to compare histological features between the two groups, to assess the impact of PCT on distribution of histological subtyping and staging and to evaluate whether PCT resulted in more staging discrepancies between local and central pathology review (CPR).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The cases were identified from the UKW3 trial database. The criteria for inclusion in the study were unilateral, nonmetastatic, nonanaplastic WTs, and submitted for CPR with an adequate number of slides. They were subclassified according to the NWTS and later the SIOP 9301 criteria.

RESULTS

There were 244 WTs in the IS and 182 in the PCT group subclassified as follows: blastemal 86 (35%) vs 9 (5%), epithelial 34 (14%) vs 12 (7%), stromal 12 (5%) vs 25 (14%), mixed 112 (46%) vs 45 (25%), respectively, plus 40% regressive and 10% completely necrotic WTs in the PCT group. The differences between the two groups for blastemal and mixed types were statistically significant. In the PCT group, there was a significant decrease in stage III tumors. The discrepancies in staging between local and CPR were not significant.

CONCLUSION

PCT significantly altered histological features and typing of WTs. It resulted in fewer stage III tumors, and staging discrepancies were equally represented in both groups.