Clinical relevance of molecular markers in neuroblastoma: Results from a single institution

Neuroblastomas, the most common extracranial solid tumors in children, pres ent an extremely heterogeneous behaviour that can be explained in part by t heir genetic abnormalities. Thirty-four patients treated at the Pediatric O ncology Unit, Hospital Vall d'Hebron from 1993 to 1997 were prospectively s tudied to determine the relative prognostic impact of a number of clinical and molecular factors. The factors studied were: ploidy, MYCN and 1p status , and TRK-A expression, in addition to age, stage and histology. Their impa ct on prognosis was analyzed. In univariate analysis, advanced stage, unfav orable histology, diploidy, MYCN amplification, and Ip deletion were identi fied as adverse prognostic factors; TRK-A expression was associated with fa vorable prognosis. After multivariate analysis, only MYCN amplification pro ved to be an independent adverse prognostic factor (p=0.03), whereas TRK-A expression identified a subset of good-prognosis patients (p=0.003).