Sympathicoblastoma

A childhood tumor, better known today as neuroblastoma, that arises in the adrenal gland or in tissue in the nervous system that is related to the adrenal gland. Neuroblastoma affects newborn babies and children up through the age of 10. In the adrenal it develops in the medulla (the central part) of the gland. In the nervous system it arises in one of the ganglia of the autonomic nervous system; a neuroblastoma so arising is sometimes termed a sympathicoblastoma. Neuroblastoma is the most common solid tumor outside the brain in infants and children. There are about 600 new cases diagnosed each year in the US. This tumor can regress (go away) on its own. Unfortunately, most children over a age of year have metastatic disease, disease that has already spread — the spread is most commonly to the lymph nodes, liver, lungs, bones, and bone marrow — by the time of diagnosis, so there is often a very poor outcome despite aggressive therapy. Neuroblastoma is predominantly a tumor of early childhood; two thirds of children with neuroblastoma are diagnosed when they are younger than 5 years of age. It is often present at birth but usually is not detected until later; in rare cases, neuroblastoma can be detected before birth by fetal ultrasound. The most common symptoms of neuroblastoma are the result of pressure by the tumor or bone pain from cancer that has spread to the bone. Protruding eyes and dark circles around the eyes are common and are caused by cancer that has spread to the area behind the eye. Neuroblastomas may compress the spinal cord, causing paralysis. Fever, anemia, and high blood pressure are found occasionally. Rarely, children may have severe watery diarrhea, uncoordinated or jerky muscle movements, or uncontrollable eye movement. Approximately 70% of all patients with neuroblastoma have metastatic disease at diagnosis. The prognosis for patients with neuroblastoma is related to their age at diagnosis (the younger, the better the prognosis), clinical stage of their disease, and (in patients older than 1 year of age) whether they do or do not have regional lymph node involvement by the tumor.

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sym·path·i·co·blas·to·ma (sim-path″ĭ-ko-blas-toґmə) a neuroblastoma arising in one of the ganglia of the sympathetic nervous system; called also sympathoblastoma.