Neuroblastoma (Sympathicoblastoma) in Northern Ireland

SET againist the background of all malignant disease, neuroblastoma is rare, but it is one of the commonest tumours of childhood, and while it fulfils all the accepted criteria of embryonic malignancy its course is peculiarly unpredictable and the efficacy of a variety of treatments remains uncertain and controversial. Referenice to textbooks and the literature meets with many points of confusion anid contradiction. This state of affairs, taken together with the fact that few doctors see enough cases in a lifetime to form a balanced view of the disease, mlust accounit for the misconceptionis and pessimismii of the generality of clinicianls anid pathologists when confronited with it. The majority of accounits of neuroblastomla represent the experiencc of a department or hospital not necessarily related to incidnce within a conliiitlnity, anid arc influenced bv local or individual attitudes towards manlagemelnt; thtus they may fail to give a conmpletely true picture of the disease. It was, therefore, of interest wvhen an opportunity arose to ascertain something of the attitudes to and behaviour of the tumour in the relatively closed community of Northern Ireland, when sufficient records became available through a survey carried out for a Nvorking party of the Medical Research Couuncil.