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Neuroblastoma, childhood cancer survivorship, and reducing the consequences of cure

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 40, pages 721–722 (2007)Cite this article

Few would dispute the strategy that every reasonable, if not conceivable, effort must be made to save the life of a child with cancer. In fact, the industrialized world has made truly remarkable progress in pediatric multimodal, risk-adapted cancer treatment, resulting in long-term survival rates for most childhood malignant diseases that were unimaginable a few decades ago.1 Unfortunately, skirting this trend, high-risk neuroblastoma tumors have proven to be quite obstinate in the face of modern therapy and, even today, children with this form of cancer do not generally fare well.2, 3 As evidenced by the case series presented by Trahair et al.,4 in this issue of Bone Marrow Transplantation, those who are fortunate enough to survive their disease confront many serious long-term adverse effects from neuroblastoma and its treatment.

Concerted study of the ‘consequences of cure’ from cancer treatment has only recently emerged as a scientific discipline within clinical and epidemiological research arenas.5, 6, 7 Such survivorship research in the pediatric setting has focused primarily on the more common malignancies, such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia and Hodgkin's lymphoma, with very little systematic study on late effects of neuroblastoma, perhaps with the exception of documenting the permanent ototoxic effects of cisplatin and carboplatin.8, 9, 10, 11, 12

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  1. Department of Pediatrics, Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.E-mail: jamegurn@umich.edu,

    J G Gurney

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Gurney, J. Neuroblastoma, childhood cancer survivorship, and reducing the consequences of cure. Bone Marrow Transplant 40, 721–722 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1705815

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