Renal tumours in early life

Renal tumours in early life are not frequent, and they differ significantly in incidence from those seen later in childhood. Therefore, the patient's age may be a very useful clue in reaching an accurate diagnosis of renal tumours, which is critical for administering the most appropriate treatment as some of these tumours are cured only by complete surgical resection. The most common renal tumours in early life include mesoblastic nephroma, Wilms’ tumour, rhabdoid tumour of the kidney and clear cell sarcoma of the kidney, whereas metanephric stromal tumours and ossifying renal tumour of infancy are very rare. This review presents the main clinicopathological features of these tumours.