J.Jpn. Surg. Soc.. 83(9): 931-935, 1982
Report on the annual meeting
MULTIMODAL THERAPY FOR ADVANCED NEUROBLASTOMA
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Department of Pediatric Surgery, Niigata University Hospital, Niigata, Japan Makoto Iwafuchi, Yoshihiro Ohsawa, Yoshiro Yamashita, Masanori Uchiyama, Yutaka Katsui, Hiroo Hirai, Kohju Nitta, Iwao Yamagiwa, Masayuki Hirota |
From 1968 to 1976, 16 patients with advanced neuroblastoma were treated with the conventional therapy consisting of operation, radiation and chemotherapy, in Niigata University Hospital.
All of them died within 16 months after initiation of the therapy. On the other hand, from 1977 to 1981, 10 patients with advanced neuroblastoma were treated with the multimodal therapy consisting of radical operation, radiation, chemotherapy, non-specific immunotherapy, maturational drugs and intravenous hyperalimentation.
Four of the ten patients have been alive for over 19 months after initiation of the therapy.
Vincristine sulfate, Cyclophosphamide and Adriamycin as the chemotherapeutic agents, Krestin (PSK) an Picibanyl (OK432) as the non-specific immuno-potantiating agents, and Prostagrandin E1 and Papaverine hydrochloride as the maturational drugs were given.
Biopsies of hepatic metastatic lesions were perfomed twice before and 2 years after the therapy in a 13-month-old boy with metastases of neuroblastoma to the liver, bone and lymph nodes.
Histology showed findings compatible with a neuroblastoma in the biopsy specimen before the therapy and that with a ganglioneuroma in the biopsy specimen after the therapy.
This fact is suggestive of the possibility that the multimodal therapy may result in the maturation of a neuroblastoma to a ganglioneuroma.
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