Endocrine Abstracts

The multiple endocrine neoplasia syndromes comprise a group of heredity conditions which predispose individuals to various tumours of the endocrine glands. The conditions are inherited in an autosomal dominant fashion.

Children can be affected by the conditions and it is important to recognise who is at risk because of the options of preventative strategies (MEN2) and screening to reduce morbidity (MEN1). However, genetic testing of children is problematic particularly as very young children may not understand the information and may not recognise the possible long term effects of a positive test results.

The presentation will cover the genetics of the MEN syndromes and will discuss some ethical issues regarding screening children for these conditions.