Stage IV-N: a favorable subset of children with metastatic neuroblastoma

Among children over 1 year of age with Evans Stage IV neuroblastoma, there appears to be a small group with a relatively favorable prognosis. These patients have extensive lymph node metastases (cervical/axillary/thoracic/abdominal/pelvic), but no extranodal metastases. Three of six such patients (50%) are long-term disease-free survivors, compared with none of 40 patients with extranodal metastatic disease (p less than 0.0002). Patients with only lymph node metastases (Stage "IV-N") may have a biologically more favorable tumor that is curable with conventional, intensive multimodality therapy.