Congenital Dopamine-secreting Neuroblastoma with Clinical and Biochemical Remission.

Neuroblastoma, a disease of early childhood, may be present at birth (Wells, 1940; Potter and Parrish, 1942; Bodian, 1959; Gross, Farber and Martin, 1959; King, Storaasli and Bolande, 1961; Dargeon, 1962; Voorhess and Gardner 1962a). Such cases are more likely to undergo remission than those occurring later in life (Bodian, 1959). Since Isaacs, Medalie and Politzer (1959) first noted an increased catecholamine production by patients with neuroblastoma, there has been a growing number of subsequent reports indicating that tumours belonging to the neuroblastomaganglioneuroma group are predominantly secretors of dopamine, the precursor of noradrenaline (Greenberg and Gardner, 1960; Sandler and Ruthven, 1960; Smellie and Sandler, 1961; Voorhess and Gardner, 1962a, b; Sourkes, Denton, Murphy, Chavez and Saint Cyr, 1963; von Studnitz, 1960; von Studnitz, Kiser and Sjoerdsma, 1963; William and Greer, 1963; Rosenstein and Engelman, 1963). We report the following case of congenital neuroblastoma, as the first to our knowledge in which biochemical remission has been noted to accompany 'spontaneous' tumour regression.