Collection, storage, and infusion of stem cells in children with high-risk neuroblastoma: saving for a rainy day.

In this position statement issued by the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Discipline and the Neuroblastoma Disease Committee of the Children's Oncology Group (COG), we address the feasibility and advisability of collecting sufficient peripheral blood stem cells in neuroblastoma patients to both support the planned initial HDC/SCR procedure(s) as well as allow for therapies, potentially utilized after a recurrence of disease, that may require PBSC support. An additional aliquot of cells for potential subsequent therapies could be collected at the time of the initial PBSC apheresis episode, by any of extending the collection time, extending the apheresis episode by a single day, or cryopreserving a separate aliquot from collections in which large numbers of CD34+ cells are collected. (c) 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.