Evaluation of the role of surgery in 130 patients with neuroblastoma

The role of surgery for children with neuroblastoma was evaluated by using a recently proposed TNM staging system. One-hundred thirty patients were retrospectively assigned a TNM clinical stage (CS) preoperatively and a pathologic stage (PS) postoperatively. Patients with CS 4 were separated into CS 4A and CS 4B according to their age and pattern of metastases. Patient survival was analyzed according to CS, age, location of primary, and PS. Actuarial survival of patients was as follows: CS 1, 100%; CS 2, 82%; CS 3, 63%; CS 4A, 50%; and CS 4B, 5%. For all stages, patients younger than 1 year old survived longer than those older than 1 year (72% v 32%). Prognosis for CS 1 was the same regardless of age. For CS 2 and CS 3, patients younger than 1 year old lived longer. CS 4A had better survival than CS 4B. Survival by site was 100% for cervical, 62% for mediastinal, 45% for pelvic, and 36% for retroperitoneal primaries. The role of surgery was evaluated by analyzing survival according to the postoperative PS. PS 1-2-3 A were regarded as satisfactory resections since all macroscopic tumor was removed. PS 3B as a debulking procedure, and PS 3C as an unresectable lesion which was biopsied. Patients with nonmetastatic disease (CS 1-3) with PS 1 and PS 2 disease had a 100% survival rate; PS 3A, 93%; PS 3B, 58%; and PS 3C, 21%. This proves the value of total resection in nonmetastatic disease. The role of surgery could also be proven in metastatic disease.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)