Intermediate-risk neuroblastoma has good prognosis

Neuroblastoma, a tumor that affects mostly young children and has a very high mortality rate when advanced, has been shown in a study published in 2010 that can have good prognosis with reduced chemotherapy. The study, announced for the first time in 2007 (see this previous post) was led by a team from Perth, Australia and endorsed by Childrens Oncology Group. They used the COG risk stratification system that uses clinical and tumor biological data to assign children to one of 3 risk groups: low, intermediate and high. Only intermediate-risk patients were included in this study. Results have shown that a short, reduced chemotherapy made up of 4 or 8 cycles and lower doses than previous treatment regimens yielded high survival rates. This regimen reduced toxicity as well, while maintaining a very good result. In this present study, 100% of INSS stage 3 patients achieved prolonged cure. Read the complete article here.