[Radiological imaging of neuroblastoma]
Friederike Körber1, Jürgen Frank Schäfer2
1Institut für Diagnostische und Interventionelle Radiologie, Schwerpunkt Kinder- und Jugendradiologie, Uniklinik Köln, Kerpener Str. 62, 50937, Köln, Deutschland. friederike.koerber@uk-koeln.de.
Background:
Neuroblastomas are tumors of the sympathetic nervous system that arise from the sympathetic trunk and adrenal glands. Tissue compositions, molecular genetics, and overall prognosis are heterogeneous. With an incidence of 1:6000, neuroblastomas account for 5.5% of childhood tumors. They usually occur in children up to preschool age with the mean age of 14 months. Adults are very rarely affected. Imaging, especially magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), plays an essential role in diagnosis, risk stratification, and therapy control.
Materials And Methods:
Based on a selective literature search in the PubMed database, the national and international societies' guidelines and study protocols, the imaging standards and the latest developments are presented.
Conclusion:
Imaging plays a key role in neuroblastomas due to the heterogeneous prognosis and the resulting very different therapy. A high degree of standardization in implementation and interpretation is important in every phase of the disease process. Sonography, MRI with diffusion weighting, and 123I‑mIBG-SPECT are essential modalities. The extent of the diffusion restriction for assessing the degree of maturity and assessing the therapeutic response is becoming increasingly important in clinical routine. Up to now, PET imaging has mostly been complementary. Newly developed PET tracers promise comprehensive diagnostics and may also play a major role in theranostics.
