Biology of neuroblastomas that were found by mass screening at 6 months of age in Japan.
BACKGROUND
Mass screening (MS) of neuroblastoma has been carried out by measuring the urinary catecholamine metabolites in infants at the age of 6 months in Japan. We assessed the incidence of neuroblastoma that may be a target for MS by studying tumor biology.


METHODS
FISH on chromosome 1 and MYCN analysis was performed on 453 patients that were classified into three clinical groups (287 infants found by MS, 51 infants < 12 months diagnosed clinically, and 115 children >or=12 months diagnosed clinically). The relationship between the biological types of tumors and the clinical outcome was examined.


RESULTS
Type 1 (trisomy 1 and normal MYCN), type 2 (disomy 1/tetrasomy 1 and normal MYCN), and type 3 (disomy 1/tetrasomy 1 and amplified MYCN) tumors were found in 88.2%, 10.5%, and 1.4% of infants found by MS, in 68.0%, 24.0%, and 8.0% of infants diagnosed clinically, and in 23.4%, 42.3%, and 34.2% of children diagnosed clinically (P < 0.001). Infants with type 1 tumors found by MS or diagnosed clinically had earlier stages of the disease (P < 0.0001 and P = 0.0005) and better overall survival (P < 0.001 and P = 0.005) than children with type 1 tumors diagnosed clinically. Infants with type 2 tumors found by MS, had earlier stages (P = 0.06 and P < 0.0001) and better overall survival (P = 0.014 and P < 0.001) than infants or children with type 2 tumors diagnosed clinically. All three clinical groups of patients with type 3 tumors had advanced stages and dismal prognoses.


CONCLUSIONS
About 12% of tumors found by MS showed unfavorable biological (types 2 and 3) characteristics.
Kaneko
Yasuhiko
Y
Division of Cancer Diagnosis, Research Institute for Clinical Oncology and Department of Hematology, Saitama Cancer Center, Saitama, Japan. kaneko@cancer-c.pref.saitama.jp
Kobayashi
Hirofumi
H
Watanabe
Naoki
N
Tomioka
Nobumoto
N
Nakagawara
Akira
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000782:Aneuploidy; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002878:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 1 / Q000235:genetics*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D000071447:N-Myc Proto-Oncogene Protein; D009447:Neuroblastoma / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D015513:Oncogene Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies
C459801:MYCN protein, human; D000071447:N-Myc Proto-Oncogene Protein; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D015513:Oncogene Proteins