The Association of Aniridia, Wilms' Tumor, and Genital Abnormalities

In 1964, Miller et al reported the results of an epidemiologic study of patients with a common form of renal cancer in childhood known as Wilms' tumor.1These authors reviewed the medical charts of all patients with Wilms' tumor, listed in the diagnostic files of six hospitals, which had been diagnosed between January 1940 and July 1963. The charts reviewed were from the Children's Hospital in Boston (184 cases), Memorial Hospital in New York (103 cases), Children's Hospital in Los Angeles (87 cases), Children's Hospital of Washington (29 cases), the University of Michigan Medical Center (25 cases) and from the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (25 cases). These records were carefully reviewed to determine the presence of associated congenital defects in children with known Wilms' tumors. This study confirmed the excessive concurrence of certain congenital defects with Wilms' tumor. For example, three of the children had hemihypertrophy, establishing