Hepatoblastoma in families with polyposis coli.

We observed hepatoblastoma in four unrelated children who have a family history of polyposis coli and found this association in ten other kindreds in the literature. The one child in our series who has survived hepatoblastoma showed multiple colonic adenomas at 7 years of age. She and eight affected maternal relatives also had congenital hypertrophy of the retinal pigment epithelium, a new marker of gene carriers in some polyposis coli families. These findings suggest that childhood hepatoblastoma is an associated feature of familial polyposis coli.