PRENATAL DETECTION OF NEUROBLASTOMA BY FETAL ULTRASONOGRAPHY

Purpose: We report three cases of neuroblastoma diagnosed by prenatal ultrasound examination and examine the biologic features of tumors dia gnosed prenatally. Patients and Methods: Neuroblastoma is the most com mon tumor detected in the newborn period. Thus, some of these tumors d evelop prenatally and should be detectable by maternal ultrasound. Her e we report three cases in which a neuroblastoma was suspected on pren atal ultrasonography. In addition, we review selected features of 17 a dditional cases reported in the literature. Results and Conclusions: T hese data indicate that, although the majority of patients have favora ble clinical and biological features and do well, some patients do not , and the DNA index may be the most important predictor of outcome.