The epidemiology of hepatoblastoma

Few causes of hepatoblastoma have been conclusively identified, mainly due to the extreme rarity of the disease. Inherited conditions including Familial Adenomatous Polyposis and Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome dramatically raise risk of hepatoblastoma but account for few cases overall. A small number of case-control studies investigating risk factors for sporadic hepatoblastoma have been conducted to date. Although most of these studies feature fewer than 200 cases, several clues have emerged. Most notably there is a roughly 20-fold increased risk of hepatoblastoma among children with very low birth weight (