High-risk neuroblastoma: a three-stage treatment model

  Neuroblastoma is classified into low, intermediate and high risk groups based on age, stage, histological type and molecular biological variants. For the low- and intermediate-risk groups, treatment is not difficult and the prognosis is good, but the high-risk group is still difficult. New treatments or clinical trials are constantly added, and the treatment model is in dynamic revision, but the general principle remains unchanged, and the treatment process is divided into three stages: induction, consolidation and maintenance treatment.  The aim is to reduce the tumor load as much as possible, including the primary and metastatic foci, and strive to achieve or approach complete remission. Intensive chemotherapy is given for about 4 courses, followed by surgery and 1-2 courses after surgery. Chemotherapy drugs are based on DDP, CTX, ADM, VP-16 and VCR, and topotecan or irinotecan are now introduced. Radiotherapy is usually placed after the end of chemotherapy and targets: primary foci and persistent metastases. Radiotherapy techniques are mostly intensity-modulated radiotherapy, which has the advantage of being able to precisely reach the treatment volume with little damage to surrounding organs. During the treatment period, autologous stem cells are collected and frozen for backup stem cell transplantation on an elective basis.  Second, the consolidation phase of treatment aims to eliminate drug-resistant cells and residual lesions left over from the induction phase of treatment. Because autologous stem cell transplantation is used, it is safe. The choice of pretreatment regimen is crucial, previously CEM (carboplatin + pedialyte glycoside + mafran) was used, now it is changed to Bu/Mel regimen (leucovorin + mafran) or Bu/Mel + 131I-MIBG. whether autologous stem cells need CD34 isolation and purification is still debated.  III. Maintenance treatment phase The aim is to continuously monitor and eliminate micro residual foci. The methods include: induction of differentiation and apoptosis treatment with 13-cis RA for 6 months; targeted immunotherapy: GD2 monoclonal antibody + cytokines (interleukin 2, GM-CSF).  Compared with the United States, the lack of GD2 monoclonal antibody (Dinutuximab) in China, there may be a solution to this problem (foreign drug purchase?) Chinese doctors are very smart and have the ability to grasp new knowledge quickly, but the biggest obstacle is the economic problem, as Dinutuximab is expensive. So do we have other methods to replace it? The author feels that GD2-CAR-T may be expected to take over, but further experience is needed.