title: A hypothesis to explain the enigmatic natural history of neuroblastoma.
abstract: A hypothesis is developed for neuroblastoma that attempts to explain the enigmatic natural history of this tumor and the variation in success of therapy as a function of the age of the child at diagnosis. It is postulated that neuroblastoma arising in the young patient has a relative paucity of clonogenically viable stem cells, whereas tumors arising in the older children have a substantial number of such clonogenic cells, as in most human tumors.
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002999:Clone Cells / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009447:Neuroblastoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology* / Q000532:radiotherapy; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000473:pathology