Incidental neuroblastoma with bilateral retinoblastoma: what are the chances?

ABSTRACT

A child with bilateral familial retinoblastoma underwent staging MRI brain and orbit which identified subtle leptomeningeal enhancement, thus prompting an MRI whole body, which revealed a retroperitoneal mass, confirmed on laparoscopic biopsy to be neuroblastoma. This is the first reported case of these two rare embryonal non-central nervous system tumors occurring concurrently. The cause of this concurrence is unknown despite their pathogenic similarities with a chance of 4 cases per 10 billion children aged 1–4 years. Incidental neuroblastomas in infants can regress spontaneously but this child underwent systemic chemotherapy for his retinoblastoma that may have caused regression of the neuroblastoma.

KEYWORDS:

• Familial
• genetic
• incidentaloma
• mosaicism
• neuroblastoma
• retinoblastoma

Financial disclosure

BG is an unpaid medical advisor at Impact Genetics. No other authors have any financial/conflicting interests to disclose.