We welcome your requests for evaluation of children who have cancers with known hereditary links, genetic defects associated with cancer development, or children with family histories that place them at a higher risk for cancer development. To refer a patient, please contact Kristin Zelley, MS.
Benefits to referring physicians
The team works closely with primary care physicians, who are often the first to spot signs of a genetic predisposition to cancer in families. For these physicians, the team:
- Provides a comprehensive, detailed written review of a patient's consultation
- Collaborates in the medical management of patients
- Recommends patient referrals to additional specialists, as needed
- Explains and interprets genetic testing results
- Provides educational materials on cancer genetics, genetic testing and cancer predisposition syndromes
Common reasons to refer a patient to our program
A child and/or family may benefit from a referral to our program if they have:
- A cancer with a known hereditary basis in a subset of cases such as:
- Retinoblastoma
- Adrenocortical carcinoma
- Choroid plexus carcinoma
- Sarcoma in a child under 3 years at diagnosis
- Paraganglioma
- Pheochromocytoma
- Hepatoblastoma
- Medullary thyroid cancer
- Medulloblastoma
- Syndromic features that suggest an underlying genetic defect associated with cancer development, such as:
- Wilms' tumor aniridia genitourinary malformation retardation [WAGR] syndrome
- Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome/idiopathic hemihypertrophy
- 13q deletion syndrome
- PTEN hamartoma tumor syndrome
- Multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN), type 2B
- Nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome
- A positive family cancer history that includes any of the following:
- Two first-degree relatives (parent, child, sibling) with cancer
- More than one child with cancer
- Three or more relatives with the same type of cancer (on the same side of the family)
- Earlier than expected age of cancer onset
- Bilateral or multifocal cancers
- Multiple primary tumors
- Evidence for autosomal dominant transmission (individuals with cancer in successive generations on the same side of the family)
- Constellation of tumors consistent with a particular familial syndrome:
- Li-Fraumeni syndrome: breast cancer, soft-tissue sarcomas, osteosarcomas, adrenocortical carcinomas, brain tumors, acute leukemias
- Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type 1: parathyroid tumors, pituitary tumors, carcinoid tumors, adrenocortical tumors, tumors of the gastro-entero-pancreatic tract
- Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia Type 2: medullary cancer of the thyroid, pheochromocytomas, other abnormal growths of endocrine tissues
- Hereditary Paraganglioma-Pheochromocytoma syndrome: paragangliomas and/or pheochromocytomas
- Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome: pheochromocytomas, clear-cell renal carcinomas, adenomas and carcinomas of the pancreas, paragangliomas, renal and pancreatic cysts, papillary cystadenomas of the epididymis and, rarely, cystadenomas of the endolymphatic sac and broad ligament
- A deletion of a tumor suppressor gene based on cytogenetic analysis
- A family member with an inheritable genetic defect, so other family members might also carry the same gene defect