Is there an association between bicuspid aortic valve and neuroblastoma?

An association has been reported between neuroblastoma and congenital heart disease, frequently bicuspid aortic valve [Holzer and Franklin. Arch Dis Child 2002;87:61–64; George et al. J Pediatr 2004;144:444–448; Friedman et al. Pediatr Cardiol 1998;19:480–481; Monte et al. Am J Pediatr Hematol Oncol 1985;7:109–116]. To evaluate this in a large patient group with neuroblastoma, we examined echocardiograms of patients with neuroblastoma from 1987 to January 2007 to determine if there was a higher incidence of bicuspid aortic valves compared to the general population without neuroblastoma. We found that only 0.7% of neuroblastoma patients had the congenital heart defect of bicuspid aortic valves compared with 1–2% in the general population [Braverman et al. Curr Prob Cardiol 2005;30:470–522]. Our data show that neuroblastoma is not associated with bicuspid aortic valves. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2010;55:359–360. © 2010 Wiley–Liss, Inc.