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Long-Term Prognosis for Neuroblastoma

Neuroblastoma is a childhood cancer, with 90 percent of the cases occurring in children younger than 5, according to the Merck Manual. In the US, 500 children are diagnosed with neuroblastoma each year, and it rarely is seen in children over 10 years of age.

  1. Staging

    • There is a staging system 1-4, which gives some indication of how the cancer is spread, how involved the lymph nodes are, and whether other organs are involved. The higher the stage the worse in general the prognosis is.

    Prognostic Markers

    • Prognostic markers give a clearer prognosis picture than staging alone, and include age (under 18 months have better chance than older children), tumor histology (how normal/abnormal the majority of cells in the tumor appear), DNA ploidy (cells with more DNA have better prognosis), and MYCN gene amplification (children with this trait have poorer outcomes).

    Risk Groups

    • With neuroblastoma, risk groups are identified as low risk, intermediate risk and high risk. Children in low risk groups are often cured with just one type of treatment, where the high risk group are harder to cure and may require a number of treatment types.

    Risk Groups Survival Rates

    • Children in the low risk category have a five-year survival rate between 90 to 95 percent, children in the intermediate risk category have a survival rate of 80 to 90 percent, and the high risk group has a survival rate of 20 to 40 percent.

    Factors in Prognosis

    • Every case is individual, but certain other factors affect the prognosis such as the overall health of the child, the child's response to (and toleration of) treatment and the way the cancer grows or spreads.

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