Survivors of neuroblastoma and ganglioneuroma and their families

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to see if the offspring of surviving neuroblastoma, ganglioneuroblastoma, or ganglioneuroma patients have themselves a risk for developing tumours. No such risk was found. There was a total of 45 liveborn children who were all healthy. These children have passed through about 37 lifetimes of risk for developing neuroblastoma and about six lifetimes of risk for developing ganglioneuroma. No excess of cancers was found among parents and sibs. It was interesting that there was a large female excess (35:12) among these survivors. One factor which may give rise to a better prognosis in females is the tendency of their tumours to mature to benign forms.