Neuroblastoma

Neuroblastoma is a form of cancer that begins in a baby’s nerve cells from the earliest stages of fetal development. It is usually diagnosed in children before they reach their tenth birthday. Just over a third of neuroblastomas first appear in the adrenal gland, while a quarter of them start in the abdomen and most of the remainder occur in close proximity to the spine within the chest, neck or pelvis. Neuroblastoma manifests itself differently in every patient, spreading rapidly in some and more slowly in others. In the youngest patients, it sometimes disappears without any medical treatment and for no known reason.