Histological Features of Spontaneously Regressing Neonatal Neuroblastoma: A Case Report

Neuroblastoma is the tumor developing from sympathetic nervous system progenitor cells that develop into benign ganglia. Neuroblastoma is the most common solid tumour in children under the age of 5 years, with a median age at diagnosis of 2 years. Neuroblastomas constitute about 8% of childhood cancers, and up to 15% of paediatric cancer deaths are attributed to neuroblastoma.

Neuroblastoma demonstrates heterogeneous biological characteristics, which include differentiation into a benign ganglioneuroma or an aggressive, metastatic, and therapy-resistant neoplasm. The prognosis of neuroblastoma depends on age, stage, and biological/molecular features. Perinatal neuroblastoma tumours tend to be localised (approximately 90%, mostly located in the adrenal gland), have low stage (L1), and lack poor prognosis markers, including amplification of the MYCN gene. Localised neuroblastoma tumours diagnosed in infants have an excellent prognosis with spontaneous resolution in almost 50% of untreated cases. [1]

Spontaneously regressed neuroblastoma is an important clinical entity whose pathological features need to be known to properly diagnose and treat the disease. The following is a description of one of such cases that might help other pathologists. [2]