Number of genomic imbalances correlates with the overall survival for adrenocortical cancer in childhood.

Background: Adrenocortical tumours (ACT) in children are rare and, if malignant, often associated with poor prognosis. Relevant cytogenetic factors for prognosis are hardly available.

Procedures: We analysed 14 adrenocortical cancers (ACC) of children by comparative genomic hybridisation (CGH).

Characteristic genomic imbalances in pediatric pheochromocytoma.

Pheochromocytoma (PCC) in children is rare, genetically not well described, and often related to a poor prognosis. We detected genomic imbalances in all 14 tumors from children analyzed by comparative genomic hybridization. A combinatorial loss of chromatin from 3p and 11p was a common feature in 10 of 14 (72%) patients, which was a result of either a loss of a total chromosome 3 and a total chromosome 11 in 6 of 10 patients, or confined deletions of their p arms in 4 of 10 patients.