Diagnosis & Staging

Diagnosis

Since neuroblastoma's symptoms can be similar to symptoms of other, more common diseases and health complaints, there is often a delay in making the diagnosis. An oncologist or pathologist will be able to diagnose neuroblastoma once he or she reviews either a biopsy of the tumor or the results of urine and bone marrow tests.

Screening tests are available for neuroblastoma, but such tests will not find a neuroblastoma before it has spread throughout the body. For this reason, screening newborns or young children for neuroblastoma is generally not recommended.

Staging of Neuroblastoma

The international tumor staging system outlined below will be simplified in the very near future.

• Stage 1

  Localized tumor confined to the area of origin; complete gross resection, with or without microscopic residual disease; identifiable ipsilateral and contralateral lymph node negative for tumor.

• Stage 2A

  Unilateral tumor with incomplete gross resection; identifiable ipsilateral and contralateral lymph node negative for tumor.

• Stage 2B

  Unilateral tumor with complete or incomplete gross resection; with ispilateral lymph node positive for tumor; identifiable contralateral lymph node negative for tumor.

• Stage 3

  Tumor infiltrating across midline with or without regional lymph node involvement; or unilateral tumor with contralateral lymph node involvement; or midline tumor with bilateral lymph node involvement.

• Stage 4

  Dissemination of tumor to distant lymph nodes, bone marrow, bone, liver, or other organs except as defined by Stage 4S.

• Stage 4S

  Localized primary tumor as defined in Stage 1 or 2, with dissemination limited to liver, skin, or bone marrow (less than 10 percent of nucleated bone marrow cells are tumors).