Nephroblastoma with spinal metastasis in a 12 year old Nigerian female: A case report

Nephroblastoma, also known as Wilms’ tumour, is the most common malignant renal tumor in children accounting for about 95% of all pediatric tumors of the kidney. Overall, nephroblastoma is the fifth most common pediatric malignancy.1 It is an embryonal tumor that develops from the remnant of persistent metanephric tissue and is made up of histologic elements namely blastemal, stromal and epithelial.1 Nephroblastoma is relatively more common in blacks than in whites and is associated with a number of syndromes such as WAGR, Beckwith Wiedemann, and Denys-Drash syndromes.2 Nephroblastoma usually present as a painless abdominal mass which may be associated with haematuria, hypertension, and fever. The peak age of incidence of nephroblastoma is 3.5 years. Incidence beyond 5 years of age is rare.3 Prognosis of nephroblastoma depends on the tumor stage, biological factors and histological subtype. Treatment of nephroblastoma is multimodal which includes surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy.3 We report an unusual case of nephroblastoma with spinal metastasis in a 12 year old Nigerian female. The focus of this article is to draw attention to this unusual case of nephroblastoma, which was painful, in a 12 year old and for clinicians to consider the diagnosis of nephroblastoma in older children that have renal masses.