Mass screening for neuroblastoma in Japan

✍ Scribed by Sawada, Tadashi; Nishi, Motoi; Takeda, Takeo; Iehara, Tomoko

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 69 KB
• Volume: 31
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0098-1532
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-911x(199811)31:5<429::aid-mpo8>3.0.co;2-q

✦ Synopsis

Results of a 11-year-experience with mass screening for neuroblastoma in 6-month-old infants in Japan are presented. From 11,284,837 infants who were screened, 1,400 cases of neuroblastoma were detected, an incidence of 1/ 6,500-7,500 infants by HPLC screening. Most of the cases (75%) were at stages I, II, or IVs and only 0.8% (7/891 examined) showed N-myc amplification over 10 copies. Their survival rate was 97%. An incidence of infantile cases of neuroblastoma increased and their biological characters became to be clear by screening. It is possible that many cases that would spontaneously regress are detected by screening. This means overdiagnosis and overtreatment to some cases. A study in Sapporo, which has a precise registration system, presented a reduction of neuroblastoma cases aged 1-4 years by HPLC screening. This study showed that different results were presented by different screening methods, such as HPLC, TLC, or VMA spot test. Depending on the results of screening, the hypothesis of a natural history of neuroblastoma is presented, and we recommend that the date at screening move to nearly 12 months of age from 6 months of age to reduce cases that regress spontaneously and to detect those with unfavorable factors in early stages.