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Cancer Information Tips :: Neuroblastoma Stage 4
Neuroblastoma Stage 4: Understanding Stage 4 Neuroblastoma
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Neuroblastoma stage 4 means the cancer has spread to the body's other areas – such as the bones, lymph nodes, bone marrow, liver, skin or potentially other organs.
If your child has been diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma, keep reading for more information about the disease, survival rates, risk factors, and common treatments.
About Neuroblastoma
Approximately 650 cases of neuroblastoma are diagnosed every year in the U.S. It's the third most common kind of cancer in children and the most common form in infants. Approximately 90 percent of all cases of neuroblastoma are diagnosed in children aged 6 and under.
About 30% of all neuroblastoma cases begin in the adrenal glands, another 30% start in the ganglia of the abdomen's sympathetic nervous system, and the majority of the remainder begin in the neck's sympathetic ganglia, chest or pelvis.
Survival Rates
The five-year survival rate for infants (under the age of 1) is 83%, it is 55% for children between the ages of 1 to 4 and 40% for older children. However, for children diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma, that survival rate drops to 50-80% for children under the age of one and to 15% for older children.
Treatment for Neuroblastoma Stage 4
Children at high risk, such as those diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma, often require very intensive chemotherapy and possibly surgery, stem cell transplants for marrow support. First, surgery is used to remove the tumor, but then chemotherapy must be employed for the remainder of the spread cancer cells.
In most cases, treatment involves a combination of medications. The main drugs used to treat children with neuroblastoma are cisplatin, vincristine, cyclophosphamide, etoposide and topotecan. These drugs produce a response in two thirds of children.
In certain cases, particularly when the cancer has spread too far to be completely removed by surgery, as is the case with the fourth stage of neuroblastoma, chemotherapy is the primary treatment.
Bone Marrow Transplantation and Blood Stem Cell Transplantation
High-intensity chemotherapy can destroy bone marrow completely. Without marrow, new blood cells won't develop. To solve this problem, children with neuroblastoma are often treated with high-intensity chemotherapy and then must undergo a bone marrow transplantation or peripheral blood stem cell transplantation.
Radiation Therapy
Radiation therapy has been used in the past to destroy any neuroblastoma cells that remain behind after surgery. It's also used to shrink tumors.
However, with neuroblastoma stage 4, it's rarely used unless in conjunction with chemotherapy or as a method of relieving the pain for children suffering from advanced cases of neuroblastoma.
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CancerInfoTips.com :: Neuroblastoma Stage 4