Abstract

We studied two children who had rhabdomyosarcoma and glioblastoma and who were from a family with a hereditary cancer syndrome that was characterized by sarcoma, breast cancer, brain tumors, lung cancer, laryngeal carcinoma, leukemia, and adrenocortical carcinoma. The deleterious genotype has now been expressed through the fourth generation of this large kindred. The pedigree emphasizes the need for an extended history of several generations to arrive at a hereditary-syndrome diagnosis. A limited pedigree may result in nonappreciation of the genetic component. The pedigree illustrates that, in certain circumstances, the highly specific varieties of cancer may occur in children before it is expressed in the parent who carries the putative gene. Pediatricians, in evaluating the causes of childhood cancer, must be cognizant of cancer among adult relatives, since this recognition may aid in the diagnosis of those hereditary cancer syndromes that are characterized by cancer occurrence in children as well as adults.