Abstract
Concordance for neuroblastoma in monozygotic twins has been reported only rarely, and the cause of the shared pathology has not been established. We describe a case of infant monozygotic twins developing tumours that were morphologically, clinically and molecularly indistinguishable, but with a delay of 6 months between times of presentation. Both tumours were metastatic and had amplification of MYCN and deletion at 1p36. Twin 1, who developed neuroblastoma first, had constitutional karyotype abnormalities in at least 5% of peripheral blood mononuclear cells involving 1p and 3p, and a deletion of 1q44 in 21% of cells. Twin 2 had a normal constitutional karyotype and lacked rearrangement or deletion of these regions. We propose an acquired neuroblastoma predisposition specific for twin 1, and in utero metastatic spread of tumour cells to twin 2 via the shared placental circulation. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.com
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
Change history
16 November 2011
This paper was modified 12 months after initial publication to switch to Creative Commons licence terms, as noted at publication
References
Biegel JA, White PS, Marshall HN, Fujimori M, Zackai EH, Scher CD, Brodeur GM and Emanuel BS (1993) Constitutional 1p36 deletion in a child with neuroblastoma. Am J Hum Genet 52: 176–182
Boyd TK and Schofield DE (1995) Monozygotic twins concordant for congenital neuroblastoma: case report and review of the literature. Pediatr Pathol Lab Med 15: 931–940
Breen CJ, O'Meara A, McDermott M, Mullarkey M and Stallings RL (2000) Coordinate deletion of chromosome 3p and 11q in neuroblastoma detected by comparative genomic hybridization. Cancer Genet Cytogenet 120: 44–49
Brodeur GM, Green AA, Hayes FA, Williams KJ, Williams DL and Tsiatis AA (1981) Cytogenetic features of human neuroblastomas and cell lines. Cancer Res 41: 4678–4686
Buckley JD, Buckley CM, Breslow NE, Draper GJ, Roberson PK and Mack TM (1996) Concordance for childhood cancer in twins. Med Pediatr Oncol 26: 223–229
Ejeskar K, Aburatani H, Abrahamsson J, Kogner P and Martinsson T (1998) Loss of heterozygosity of 3p markers in neuroblastoma tumours implicate a tumour-suppressor locus distal to the FHIT gene. Br J Cancer 77: 1787–1791
Gilbert F, Balaban G, Moorhead P, Bianchi D and Schlesinger H (1982) Abnormalities of chromosome 1p in human neuroblastoma tumors and cell lines. Cancer Genet Cytogenet 7: 33–42
Hallstensson K, Thulin S, Aburatani H, Hippo Y and Martinsson T (1997) Representational difference analysis and loss of heterozygosity studies detect 3p deletions in neuroblastoma. Eur J Cancer 33: 1966–1970
Kushner BH and Helson L (1985) Monozygotic siblings discordant for neuroblastoma: etiologic implications. J Pediatr 107: 405–409
Laureys G, Speleman F, Opdenakker G, Benoit Y and Leroy J (1990) Constitutional translocation t(1;17)(p36;q12–21) in a patient with neuroblastoma. Genes Chromosomes Cancer 2: 252–254
Laureys G, Speleman F, Versteeg R, van der Drift P, Chan A, Leroy J, Francke U, Opdenakker G and Van Roy N (1995a) Constitutional translocation t(1;17)(p36.31–p36.13;q11.2–q12.1) in a neuroblastoma patient. Establishment of somatic cell hybrids and identification of PND/A12M2 on chromosome 1 and NF1/SCYA7 on chromosome 17 as breakpoint flanking single copy markers. Oncogene 10: 1087–1093
Laureys G, Versteeg R, Speleman F, van der Drift P, Francke U, Opdenakker G and Van Roy N (1995b) Characterisation of the chromosome breakpoints in a patient with a constitutional translocation t(1;17)(p36.31–p36.13;q11.2–q12) and neuroblastoma. Eur J Cancer 4: 523–526
Mancini AF, Rosito P, Faldella G, Serra L, Vallicelli R, Vecchi V, Vivarelli F and Paolucci G (1982) Neuroblastoma in a pair of identical twins. Med Pediatr Oncol 10: 45–51
Mead RS and Cowell JK (1995) Molecular characterization of a (1;10)(p22;q21) constitutional translocation from a patient with neuroblastoma. Cancer Genet Cytogenet 81: 151–154
Mertens F, Johansson B, Hoglund M and Mitelman F (1997) Chromosomal imbalance maps of malignant solid tumors: a cytogenetic survey of 3185 neoplasms. Cancer Res 57: 2765–2780
Mitchell EL, McNally K and Kelsey A (1996) Involvement of chromosomes 1 and 17 in a case of neuroblastoma. Pediatr Hematol Oncol 13: 457–461
Rudolph B, Harbott J and Lampert F (1988) Fragile sites and neuroblastoma: fragile site at 1p13.1 and other points on lymphocyte chromosomes from patients and family members. Cancer Genet Cytogenet 31: 83–94
Schleiermacher G, Peter M, Michon J, Hugot JP, Vielh P, Zucker JM, Magdelenat H, Thomas G and Delattre O (1994) Two distinct deleted regions on the short arm of chromosome 1 in neuroblastoma. Genes Chromosomes Cancer 10: 275–281
Van Roy N, Laureys G, Van Gele M, Opdenakker G, Miura R, van der Drift P, Chan A, Versteeg R and Speleman F (1997) Analysis of 1;17 translocation breakpoints in neuroblastoma: implications for mapping of neuroblastoma genes. Eur J Cancer 33: 1974–1978
Vernole P, Tedeschi B, Caporossi D and Nicoletti B (1989) Fragile site 1p13.1 in neuroblastoma patients. Cancer Genet Cytogenet 40: 135–136
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
From twelve months after its original publication, this work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
About this article
Cite this article
Anderson, J., Kempski, H., Hill, L. et al. Neuroblastoma in monozygotic twins – a case of probable twin-to-twin metastasis. Br J Cancer 85, 493–495 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1054/bjoc.2001.1979
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1054/bjoc.2001.1979