Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Spontaneous regression of metastatic cancer: learning from neuroblastoma

Abstract

Several interesting biological questions arise when thinking about the heterogeneous presentation of neuroblastoma, especially with regard to the molecular differences between very low- and high-risk disease. Why do some metastatic tumours spontaneously differentiate or regress entirely? Does the presence of disseminated disease always indicate metastases, or might some cases be better considered as multifocal disease?

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Cheung, N.-K. V. & Dyer, M. A. Neuroblastoma: developmental biology, cancer genomics and immunotherapy. Nature Rev. Cancer 13, 397–411 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Cohn, S. L. et al. The International Neuroblastoma Risk Group (INRG) classification system: an INRG Task Force report. J. Clin. Oncol. 27, 289–297 (2009).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Pugh, T. J. et al. The genetic landscape of high-risk neuroblastoma. Nature Genet. 45, 279–284 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Molenaar, J. J. et al. Sequencing of neuroblastoma identifies chromothripsis and defects in neuritogenesis genes. Nature 483, 589–593 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Sausen, M. et al. Integrated genomic analyses identify ARID1A and ARID1B alterations in the childhood cancer neuroblastoma. Nature Genet. 45, 12–17 (2013).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Nakagawara, A. et al. Association between high levels of expression of the TRK gene and favorable outcome in human neuroblastoma. N. Engl. J. Med. 328, 847–854 (1993).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. D'Angio, G. J., Evans, A. E. & Koop, C. E. Special pattern of widespread neuroblastoma with a favourable prognosis. Lancet 1, 1046–1049 (1971).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Scott J. Diede.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Diede, S. Spontaneous regression of metastatic cancer: learning from neuroblastoma. Nat Rev Cancer 14, 71–72 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc3656

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc3656

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Cancer

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Cancer newsletter — what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Cancer