Prognosis in neuroblastoma of childhood.

Abstract

The change in the medical attitude toward prognosis in neuroblastoma of childhood received its major impetus from the reports of Farber 1 and of Gross. 2 Subsequent publications from other centers 3-5 have amply confirmed the observation that there is a definite and significant long-term survival rate among the children with neuroblastoma. The magnitude of this survival rate appears to be influenced by several factors, among which age of the patient, presence of metastases, and degree of malignancy have been suggested. The clinical experience at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute (MDAH), however, during the period from 1951 through 1957 disclosed what appeared to be consistently unsatisfactory end-results in 15 children with neuroblastoma (Table 1). Eleven of the fifteen were dead within nine months. Only one child was living and apparently free of disease four years after diagnosis. Of three additional children who were still