Neuroblastoma stage 4 is the most advanced stage of the neuroblastoma cancer. It means that the disease has spread to other areas of the body.
Neuroblastoma stage 4 is a cancer that has spread to the body's other areas - such as the bones, lymph nodes, bone marrow, liver, skin or potentially other vital 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.
A Neuroblastoma Overview
Neuroblastoma is the most common form of cancer in infants and the third most typical cancer for children. However, there are only 650 cases of the disease diagnosed each year in the United States. Ninety percent of those cases are discovered in children under the age of 7.
A third of all neuroblastoma instances develop in the adrenal glands, and another third start in the sympathetic nervous system ganglia in the abdomen. The remaining cases typically start in the neck, chest or pelvis sympathetic ganglia regions.
Rates for Five-Year Survival
The five-year survival rate for infants (under the age of 1) is 83%, while 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.
Treatments Used for Stage 4 of Neuroblastoma
Children who are diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma are considered high risk. They are typically subjected to intensive, high-dosage chemotherapy accompanied by surgery and stem cell transplantations. Typically though, surgery is the first step unless the neuroblastoma has spread too far.
In many cases of stage 4 neuroblastoma, chemotherapy is the only option after surgery to eradicate all the cancer cells. The drugs most often used include vincristine, etoposide, topotecan, cyclophosphamie and cisplatin.
If the neuroblastoma has spread throughout the body and gone too far so as not to be removable by surgery, then chemotherapy sessions often become the primary treatment.
Bone Marrow and Blood Stem Cell Transplants
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.
Treatments of Radiation
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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