Neuroblastoma is one of the most common types of childhood cancer that develops from nerve tissue. It normally starts in the tissue of the adrenal glands and can spread to other parts of the body like lymph nodes, skin, liver and bones.
Nearly 700 children are diagnosed with the rare cancer each year in the United States. Research has been ongoing in hopes of finding better treatment options for the cancer as intense treatments can result in life-long side-effects. Neuroblastoma is sometimes very treatable while other forms are very virulent leading to death.
Bringing in new hopes of treatment method the scientists jointly led by London's Institute of Cancer Research have found the effectiveness of a whole-genome scan in accurately detecting and targeting the particular type of treatment.
For examining the type of test to be adopted to get an accurate idea about the condition, scientists went through the medical records of 8,800 children affected with neuroblastoma across the world.
At the end of the study, researchers found whole-genome scan more successful in predicting diagnosis than other individual tests.
"Our study has found that every single patient diagnosed with neuroblastoma should have a whole genome assessment. The technology required to carry out these scans has become much more widely available and cheaper over recent years, and we believe most diagnostic labs in developed countries worldwide should have this capacity," Senior author Professor Andy Pearson, Cancer Research UK, said in a news release.
"These gene tests would help doctors provide a more accurate prognosis and decide the best treatment for their patients, which could potentially save more lives and spare other children the risk of serious side-effects."
The current study is based on earlier research conducted by the same researchers called the International Neuroblastoma Risk Group led to the classification of tumors according to 13 characteristics and three genetic alterations - ploidy, MYCN and the segmental gene alteration 11q.
Further exploring the segmental gene alterations, the new study found scanning the whole genome having the power to provide most reliable diagnosis and selecting the best treatment.
Findings of the study have been published in the British Journal of Cancer.
