We report on a female patient with severe-profound mental retardation, multiple congenital anomalies, as well as a history of mosaicism for partial 1q trisomy in the amniotic fluid and a previous Wilms tumor specimen. Peripheral blood and fibroblasts were studied and did not demonstrate the mosaicism initially detected for 1q. Array comparative genomic hybridization yielded negative results. Additional cytogenetic studies helped clarify the previous findings and revealed evidence of partial 1q trisomy mosaicism in normal kidney tissue and in a kidney lesion. GTG-banded results showing low-percentage mosaicism for the structural rearrangement der(1)t(1;1)(p36.1;q23) in both tissues were corroborated by fluorescence in situ hybridization studies. We hypothesize that the partial 1q trisomy predisposed the target tissue (in this case kidney) to neoplasia. This study provides further support for the hypothesis that certain constitutional chromosomal abnormalities can predispose to cancer. As detection of a low-percentage mosaicism may be hampered by the limits imposed by currently available technology and the constraint of a finite sample size, extra vigilance in monitoring other somatic tissues will be needed throughout the patient's lifetime. Anticipatory clinical guidance and prognostication are meaningful only if given accurate cytogenetic diagnoses. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of Wilms tumor associated with constitutional partial 1q trisomy, either in pure or mosaic form, with the particular 1q23 breakpoint in conjunction with a break on 1p36.1.