NEUROBLASTOMA IN AN ADULT WITH A HIGH SERUM LEVEL OF CARBOHYDRATE ANTIGEN, CA125 - REPORT OF A CASE

We report herein the case of a 56-year-old woman with a neuroblastoma associated with a high serum level of carbohydrate antigen, CA125. The patient presented with massive ascites and a firm mass in her upper a bdomen for which a laparotomy was performed. However, a recurrent tumo r was found 6 months later and she died of the disease within 1 year o f surgery despite several courses of adjuvant chemotherapy, Neuroblast oma rarely occurs in adults, and the features of 58 adult cases descri bed in the world literature is summarized following the presentation o f the clinical data on this case, The distribution of primary sites in adults is dispersed compared to that seen in pediatric cases, while t he natural history of the disease in adults may be longer and less sen sitive to chemotherapy than in children, The survival rate of adults w ith this disease is poor. We conclude that aggressive surgical interve ntion combined with appropriate chemotherapy protocols as applied in c hildren should be performed in an attempt to achieve complete remissio n and improve the survival rate of adults with neuroblastoma.