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Prevalence of Café-au-Lait Spots in children with solid tumors

Abstract

Cafe-au-lait maculae (CALM) are frequently observed in humans, and usually are present as a solitary spot. Multiple CALMs are present in a smaller fraction of the population and are usually associated with other congenital anomalies as part of many syndromes. Most of these syndromes carry an increased risk of cancer development. Previous studies have indicated that minor congenital anomalies may be more prevalent in children with cancer. We investigated the prevalence of CALMs in two samples of Brazilian patients with childhood solid tumors, totaling 307 individuals. Additionally, 176 school children without diagnosis of cancer, or of a cancer predisposing syndrome, were investigated for the presence of CALMs. The prevalence of solitary CALM was similar in both study groups (18% and 19%) and also in the group of children without cancer. Multiple CALMs were more frequently observed in one of the study groups (Z = 2.1). However, when both groups were analyzed together, the significance disappeared (Z = 1.5). The additional morphological abnormalities in children with multiple CALMs were analyzed and compared to the findings observed in the literature. The nosologic entities associated with CALMs are reviewed.

Keywords
café-au-lait maculae; pediatric solid tumors; birth defects; nosology

Introduction

Café-au-lait maculae (CALM) are named after their typical coffee-and-milk hue, and a color only slightly darker than the surrounding skin. There are two main types of CALMs. The most common type has fairly regular and clearly demarcated margins ("coast of California"). They may range in size from a few millimeters to several centimeters and may be present as solitary or as multiple spots. There is a second, less frequent type of CALM that has a much more irregular margin ("coast of Maine"), and is usually larger and solitary (Aase, 1990Aase JM (1990) Diagnostic Dysmorphology. Plenum Medical Book Company, London and New York, 299 p.). At birth, a single CALM is observed in 5% of Caucasians and up to 15% of Americans of African descent. Three or more spots are observed in 2% of the population (Aase, 1990Aase JM (1990) Diagnostic Dysmorphology. Plenum Medical Book Company, London and New York, 299 p.). CALMs may occur as isolated findings, or may be associated with minor and/or major congenital anomalies, as part of many syndromes. CALMs are typically observed in neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1), an autosomal dominant condition characterized by the presence of multiple neurofibromas, as well as other non-tumoral manifestations, like multiple CALMs, which are present in almost all adult patients with this disease. CALMs are usual findings in many other monogenic diseases, as well as in chromosomal abnormalities that are associated with mosaicism. This is the case with chromosomal rings, which are usually unstable during cell division, resulting in chromosomal mosaics. Interestingly, many of these genetically determined conditions that present with CALMs do also carry increased predisposition to cancer development. For this reason, we set out to investigate the prevalence of CALMs in children with and without cancer. Two groups of children with a pediatric solid tumor, resident in two states in southeastern Brazil (Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo), were independently examined for the presence of cutaneous pigmentary changes. A third group of children without cancer was also examined.

Methods

Two study groups of children (ages 0-18 years) with current or previous diagnosis of a pediatric solid tumor were examined by a medical geneticist trained in dysmorphology. Study groups 1 and 2 are composed of children with current or previous diagnosis of a pediatric solid tumor: study group 1 (226 individuals) is from Rio de Janeiro (RJ); study group 2 (81 individuals) is from Sao Paulo (SP). The two cities are located in contiguous states in southeastern Brazil. Additionally, a third group (Study group 3) from Rio de Janeiro (RJ), and is composed of 176 school children without diagnosis of cancer or of a cancer predisposing syndrome. Age distribution among the three study groups did not show statistical differences. Both groups of children with cancer are part of a larger study aimed at investigating the prevalence of major and minor congenital anomalies in children with cancer. The same protocol for description of minor anomalies and morphologic variants based on the studies of Merks et al. (2003Merks JHM, van Karnebeek CDM, Caron HN and Hennekam RCM (2003) Phenotypic abnormalities: Terminology and classification. Am J Med Genet (A) 123:211-230., 2006)Merks JH, Ozgen HM, Cluitmans TL, van der Burg-van Rijn JM, Cobben JM, van Leeuwen FE and Hennekam RC (2006) Normal values for morphological abnormalities in school children. Am J Med Genet (A) 140:2091-2109. was applied in all three study groups. The presence of two or more café-au-lait maculae was defined as "multiple CALMs". Analysis of the frequency of CALMs between the different study groups was accomplished through estimation of Z scores. We considered Z > 1.96 (two standard deviations) as the threshold for significance. Children with hematologic malignancies were not included in the study. Data on the size (diameter) of each individual café-au-lait spot, as well as ethnic background of the affected individuals were not collected in the present study. The present study was approved by the local Institutional Review Board of all involved institutions (83/08). Subjects were included in the study after discussion and signature of the informed consent by their parents and/or legal guardian.

Results and Discussion

In the present study, two study groups of patients with pediatric solid tumors were independently investigated for the presence of CALM by two trained dysmorphologists. The same protocol was applied in a third group of children without diagnosis of cancer or of a cancer predisposing syndrome.

Our study identified 28 children with multiple CALMs, 25 of which were associated with other congenital anomalies. The frequency of solitary CALMs was similar in the study groups 1 and 2 (children with solid tumors), and did not differ from that observed among school children without cancer (Z = 1.2 and Z = 0.5, respectively). The frequency of multiple CALMs, however, was higher in group 1 (12%) than in group 2 (5%), and also than that of the group of children without cancer (Z = 2.8). However, when both study groups 1 and 2 were analyzed together, the difference with the group without cancer became of borderline significance (Z = 2.0). These data are shown in Table 1. The additional findings observed in each patient are shown in Table 2. Table 3 shows the prevalence of each congenital anomaly within the patient group. A known syndromic diagnosis could be suspected in four patients. Additional patients presented multiple findings compatible with the clinical presumption of a dysmorphic, private syndrome (Table 2). Table 4 shows the main nosologic entities associated with multiple CALMs.

Table 1
Observed numbers of solitary and multiple CALMs in study groups 1, 2 and 3, along with expected numbers and Z scores for study groups 1, 2 and 1 + 2.
Table 2
Additional birth defects, congenital anomalies, and morphologic variants detected by ectoscopy in children with pediatric solid tumor and multiple CALMs. Cases are stratified by tumor and by cohort.
Table 3
Birth defects, congenital anomalies, and morphologic variants observed in children with pediatric solid tumor and multiple CALMs. Variants marked with an asterisk (*) have been previously associated with pediatric cancer (Merks et al., 2008Merks JM, Özgen H, Koster J, Zwinderman AH, Caron HN and Hennekam RCM (2008) Prevalence and patterns of morphological abnormalities in patients with childhood cancer. JAMA 299:61-69.).
Table 4
Main syndromes associated with CALMs.

Burwell et al. (1982)Burwell RG, James NJ and Johnston DI (1982) Café-au-lait spots in school children. Arch Dis Child 57:631-632. observed a single café-au-lait spot in 20% and multiple spots in 6% of 732 school children. Merks et al. (2006)Merks JH, Ozgen HM, Cluitmans TL, van der Burg-van Rijn JM, Cobben JM, van Leeuwen FE and Hennekam RC (2006) Normal values for morphological abnormalities in school children. Am J Med Genet (A) 140:2091-2109. observed 13% of single spots and 3.3% of multiple spots in healthy children. According to Tekin et al. (2001)Tekin M, Bodurtha JN and Riccardi VM (2001) Café au lait spots: The pediatrician's perspective. Pediatr Rev 22:82-90., single spots may be observed in up to 27% in children under 10 years of age.

Multiple café-au-lait spots were observed in cancer predisposing syndromes like neurofibromatosis 1, neurofibromatosis 2, tuberous sclerosis, McCune-Albright syndrome, Fanconi anemia, among others (Evans et al., 1992Evans DG, Huson SM, Donnai D, Neary W, Blair V, Newton V, Strachan T and Harris R (1992) A genetic study of type 2 neurofibromatosis in the United Kingdom. II. Guidelines for genetic counselling. J Med Genet 29:847-852.; Giampietro et al., 1993Giampietro PF, Adler-Brecher B, Verlander PC, Pavlakis SG, Davis JG and Auerbach AD (1993) The need for more accurate and timely diagnosis in Fanconianemia: A report from the International Fanconi Anemia Registry. Pediatrics 91:1116-1120.; Roach et al., 1998Roach ES, Gomez MR and Northrup H (1998) Tuberous sclerosis complex consensus conference: Revised clinical diagnostic criteria. J Child Neurol 13:624-628.; Kim et al., 1999Kim IS, Kim ER, Nam HJ, Chin MO, Moon YH, Oh MR, Yeo UC, Song SM, Kim JS, Uhm MR, et al. (1999) Activating mutation of GS alpha in McCune-Albright syndrome causes skin pigmentation by tyrosinase gene activation on affected melanocytes. Horm Res 52:235-240.; Ferner et al., 2007Ferner RE, Huson SM, Thomas N, Moss C, Willshaw H, Evans DG, Upadhyaya M, Towers R, Gleeson M, Steiger C, et al. (2007) Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of individuals with neurofibromatosis 1. J Med Genet 44:81-88.). More recently, café-au-lait spots were observed in 60% of carriers of biallelic mutations in mismatch repair (MMR) genes (Wimmer et al., 2014Wimmer K, Kratz CP, Vasen HF, Caron O, Colas C, Entz-Werle N, Gerdes AM, Goldberg Y, Ilencikova D, Muleris M, et al. (2014) Diagnostic criteria for constitutional mismatch repair deficiency syndrome: Suggestions of the European consortium ‘care for CMMRD’ (C4CMMRD). J Med Genet 51:355-365.), characteristic of constitutional mismatch repair deficiency syndrome (CMMRDS). These authors developed a score for investigation of this condition that includes the presence of CALMs and suggested that a score of three or more points warrants investigation of CMMRDS (Wimmer et al., 2014Wimmer K, Kratz CP, Vasen HF, Caron O, Colas C, Entz-Werle N, Gerdes AM, Goldberg Y, Ilencikova D, Muleris M, et al. (2014) Diagnostic criteria for constitutional mismatch repair deficiency syndrome: Suggestions of the European consortium ‘care for CMMRD’ (C4CMMRD). J Med Genet 51:355-365.).

Merks et al. (2005)Merks JHM, Huib N, Caron HN and Hennekam RCM (2005) High incidence of malformation syndromes in a series of 1,073 children with cancer. Am J Med Genet (A) 134:132-143. studied 1,073 children with cancer and observed major abnormalities in 26.8% of the patients vs. 15.5% in controls (p = 0.001), and minor anomalies in 65.1% of the patients vs. 56.2% in controls (p = 0.001). Three or more minor anomalies were detected in 15.2% of the patients and in 8.3% of the controls (p = 0.001). A known cancer predisposing syndrome could be detected or suspected in 7.2% of the patients. The same authors (Merks et al., 2008Merks JM, Özgen H, Koster J, Zwinderman AH, Caron HN and Hennekam RCM (2008) Prevalence and patterns of morphological abnormalities in patients with childhood cancer. JAMA 299:61-69.) observed 17 morphological abnormalities that occurred more frequently in pediatric cancer patients than in controls: blepharophimosis, asymmetric lower limbs, Sydney crease, broad foot, isolated short metacarpals, short distal phalanx of the thumb, portwine stain, hyperconvex nails, retrognathia, hypoplastic alae nasae, prominent ears, broad hand, scoliosis, hypertelorism, tall stature, macrocephaly, and microcephaly. Interestingly, CALMs are not included in this group. Two of these 17 congenital anomalies, blepharophimosis and asymmetric lower limbs, showed patterns of non-random association with other minor anomalies. The so-called "blepharophimosis pattern" consisted of the preferential association of blepharophimosis, increased anterior-posterior angulation of the spine, patchy hypopigmentation of the skin, and multiple CALMs. The asymmetric lower limb pattern consists of asymmetric lower limbs, tall stature, midface hypoplasia, ptosis, and pectus carinatum or excavatum.

It is worthy of note that, from 17 congenital anomalies described by Merks et al. (2008)Merks JM, Özgen H, Koster J, Zwinderman AH, Caron HN and Hennekam RCM (2008) Prevalence and patterns of morphological abnormalities in patients with childhood cancer. JAMA 299:61-69., eight were observed in at least one patient from our sample: tall stature, macrocephaly, ocular hypertelorism, hypoplastic alae nasae, retrognathia, scoliosis, hyperconvex nails, asymmetric lower limbs, and hemangioma. These anomalies are marked with an asterisk in Table 3. We did not observe any patient with the complete pattern described by Merks et al. (2008)Merks JM, Özgen H, Koster J, Zwinderman AH, Caron HN and Hennekam RCM (2008) Prevalence and patterns of morphological abnormalities in patients with childhood cancer. JAMA 299:61-69.. However, two patients presented the association of multiple CALMS and hypopigmented / depigmented spots, suggestive of the "blepharophimosis pattern" (Table 3). It is important to take into consideration that we have included only patients with pediatric solid tumors in the study, while the sample studied by Merks et al. (2008)Merks JM, Özgen H, Koster J, Zwinderman AH, Caron HN and Hennekam RCM (2008) Prevalence and patterns of morphological abnormalities in patients with childhood cancer. JAMA 299:61-69. was composed of all pediatric malignancies. In fact, almost half (438 out of 1,073) of the children studied by Merks et al. (2008)Merks JM, Özgen H, Koster J, Zwinderman AH, Caron HN and Hennekam RCM (2008) Prevalence and patterns of morphological abnormalities in patients with childhood cancer. JAMA 299:61-69. were carriers of hematological malignancies (non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, or acute myeloid leukemia).

In summary, our study showed that the frequency of solitary CALMs is not significantly increased in children with pediatric solid tumors. Multiple CALMs were more frequently observed in one of our studied samples (study group 1, Z = 2.8). However, the combined analysis of the studied samples (study groups 1 and 2) showed only borderline significance (Z = 2.0). Hence, the identification of multiple CALMs in a child with cancer warrants further morphologic evaluation, given the great number of cancer predisposing syndromes associated with multiple CALMs.

Acknowledgments

FRV is the recipient of grants from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq; grant 486599/2012-4) and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ, grant E26/110.535/2012).

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  • Associate Editor: Maria Isabel Achatz

Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    24 May 2016
  • Date of issue
    Apr-Jun 2016

History

  • Received
    22 Jan 2015
  • Accepted
    08 June 2015
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