Population-based and controlled study to evaluate neuroblastoma screening at one year of age in Germany: Interim results

Background. The German Neuroblastoma Screening Project is the first control led and population-based screening study to evaluate the presumed benefit o f neuroblastoma mass screening at 1 year of age (10-18 months). Procedure. Screening takes place in 6 of the 16 German states; children from the remai nder serve as controls. The German Childhood Cancer Registry enables a most ly complete follow-up and detection of false-negative patients. Results. Up to December, 1999, 1,199,165 children were examined for urinary catecholam ine metabolites and 124 cases of neuroblastoma were detected preclinically, giving a detection rate of 10.3/100,000. Within this cohort, 33 false-nega tive cases were found. Conclusions. The results of this screening program w ill be crucial for further implementation of neuroblastoma screening. (C) 2 000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.