THURSDAY, Jan. 29 (HealthDay News) -- Improvements in treatment strategies are needed for patients with high-risk neuroblastoma, according to the results of two studies published online Jan. 26 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

In the first study, Katherine K. Matthay, M.D., of the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine, and colleagues reported the long-term follow-up results of a randomized trial that compared intensive consolidation therapy (myeloablative chemotherapy plus autologous bone marrow transplant) with less intensive conventional chemotherapy. Patients who received intensive therapy continued to show significantly higher rates of five-year event-free survival (30 percent versus 19 percent), the investigators found. The five-year overall survival was also significantly superior in these patients (59 percent versus 41 percent), the researchers report.

In the second study, Adela Canete, Ph.D., of the Unidad de Oncologia Pediatrica, Hospital Infantil La Fe in Valencia, Spain, and colleagues determined the effect of intensive multimodal therapy (including high-dose busulfan and melphalan) with peripheral stem cell support and radiotherapy. The study population consisted of infants with high-risk neuroblastoma. The researchers report a two-year rate of overall survival of 30 percent, with a median survival time of one year. Induction chemotherapy failed to achieve a response in 30 percent of the infants, the report indicates.

"Although [these] studies…highlight the progress that has been made in stratifying and treating children with high-risk neuroblastoma, outcomes remain dismal for this cohort of patients," the authors of an accompanying editorial write.

Abstract - Matthay
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Abstract - Canete
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