Bone Marrow Infiltration in Neuroblastoma: Characteristics of Infiltrating Cells and Role of the Microenvironment

Neuroblastoma (NB) is a pediatric tumor that arises from peripheral nervous system. The clinical presentation of NB is highly heterogeneous, ranging from asymptomatic tumor masses requiring little, if any, treatment to metastatic disease requiring intensive multimodal therapies (see [1] for review). Also the outcome of NB patients is highly variable. The 5-years overall survival ranges from 98-100% for stage 1 infants without MYCN amplification to less than 20% for children with stage 4 MYCN amplified tumors [2]. The main prognostic factors are indeed stage, age at diagnosis and MYCN oncogene status [3].