Neuroblastoma in the first year of life: clinical and biologic factors influencing outcome.

The survival for infants less than 1 year of age with neuroblastoma is twice that of older children. This report describes 70 babies with neuroblastoma who experienced an 84% survival. Survival was 100% for stages I, II, and III, 81% for stage IV-S, and 50% for stage IV. Most survivors had favorable biologic characteristics including spontaneous regression, favorable Shimada histology, normal first chromosome, aneuploid tumors, absent or low N-myc oncogene expression, and normal serum ferritin levels.