Bloom syndrome (often abbreviated as BS in literature) is a rare autosomal recessive genetic disorder characterized by short stature, predisposition to the development of cancer, and genomic instability. BS is caused by mutations in the "BLM" gene which is a member of the RecQ DNA helicase family. Mutations in other members of this family, namely WRN and RECQL4, are associated with the clinical entities Werner syndrome and Rothmund–Thomson syndrome, respectively. More broadly, Bloom syndrome is a member of a class of clinical entities that are characterized by chromosomal instability, genomic instability, or both and by cancer predisposition.