Definition of Response And Remission in Children Over one Year of Age with Advanced Neuroblastoma: Proposition for a Scoring System

Abstract

A two-step evaluation system is proposed to analyze the results of therapy for stage IV neuro-blastoma in children over 1 year of age. Since most protocols consist of first-line chemotherapy followed by surgery and often high-dose chemotherapy with bone marrow rescue, “response” should assess the effect of chemotherapy alone and “remission” indicate the status after an attempt to remove the primary tumor. A scoring system is proposed for both steps. The comparability of different studies depends on the use of such common criteria to define patient groups and treatment results.

Key Words:

• neuroblastoma stage IV
• response
• remission
• score