Study of Specimens From Young Patients With Neuroblastoma

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

I. Establish a robust messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) gene expression classifier for
improved outcome prediction in children with neuroblastoma by using real-time polymerase
chain reaction (PCR) to quantify mRNA levels from genes that have been shown in at least 2
independent studies to have predictive power.

II. Identify microRNA (miRNA) patterns that have prognostic significance in neuroblastoma
(NB) as accumulating evidence indicates that alterations in miRNA expression play a critical
role in tumorigenesis and can be used in prognostic evaluation.

III. To perform an integrated analysis of the established microRNA classifier with our mRNA
signature to determine whether it results in even better classification of NB tumors.

OUTLINE:

Previously collected samples are analyzed for 59 prognostic genes by real-time quantitative
PCR-based gene expression profiling.

Inclusion Criteria:

- Diagnosis of primary Neuroblastoma

- Untreated disease

- RNA samples from primary untreated NB-tumors available in Children's Oncology Group
(COG) repository

- At least 60% tumor cells

- At least 2 years of follow-up from the date of diagnosis

- Full clinical and biological annotation