title: Does megatherapy contribute to survival in metastatic neuroblastoma? A retrospective analysis. German Cooperative Neuroblastoma Study Group.
abstract: To evaluate the impact of megatherapy on the outcome of high risk neuroblastoma, 39 patients with stage IV neuroblastoma, who underwent megatherapy, were analyzed retrospectively and compared to 49 patients, who continued chemotherapy according to the German cooperative trial NB85. The groups were comparable concerning age, primary localisation, pattern of metastases, clinical risk groups and response to induction therapy. Overall survival of the megatherapy group was 0.23 +/- 0.07 compared to 0.14 +/- 0.05 of the chemotherapy group (p = 0.0149). In particular patients with partial response to induction chemotherapy appeared to gain from megatherapy, while patients in complete remission did not benefit. Subset analysis confirmed the superiority of megatherapy in patients with bone marrow infiltration at diagnosis, in patients with or without bone metastases at diagnosis and in patients older than 2 years. On the background of the poor prognosis of stage 4 neuroblastoma and lack of other effective treatment modalities these data support the utilization of megatherapy in treatment strategies for stage IV neuroblastoma.
authors.affiliation: Children's Hospital of Universities Köln.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hero
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kremens
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Klingebiel
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bender-Götze
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Burdach
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schrappe
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Berthold
mesh_terms: D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D018365:Neoplasm, Residual / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D009447:Neuroblastoma / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D012074:Remission Induction; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012983:Soft Tissue Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D015996:Survival Rate