The role of age in neuroblastoma risk stratification: the German, Italian, and children's oncology group perspectives.
Recent evidence suggests that the cut-off for age utilized in neuroblastoma risk groups should be increased from the 365-day cut-off currently in use. Separate cooperative group analyses were performed by German and Italian groups and two analyses by the Children's Oncology Group (North America, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Netherlands). In general, the results are in agreement regarding the prognostic contribution of age. There is strong evidence to support an increase in the age cut-off to a value in the range of 15-18 months based on the results from the German analysis and two COG analyses. However, Italian results in INSS stage 4 patients show that outcome in patients 12-17 months is not better than that of older patients. Further analyses are warrented.
London
Wendy B
WB
University of Florida and Children's Oncology Group Department of Statistics, 104 N. Main St., #600, Gainesville, FL 32601, USA. wlondon@cog.ufl.edu
Boni
Luca
L
Simon
Thorsten
T
Berthold
Frank
F
Twist
Clare
C
Schmidt
Mary Lou
ML
Castleberry
Robert P
RP
Matthay
Katherine K
KK
Cohn
Susan L
SL
De Bernardi
Bruno
B
D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008495:Medical Oncology; D009447:Neuroblastoma / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012307:Risk Factors