Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0027819 (neuroblastoma)
 27,800 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The melanotic neuroectodermal tumor of infancy is an uncommon neoplasm typically of early childhood which has a predilection for the head and neck region, particularly the maxilla. Except for one previous example in the literature, this tumor has consistently behaved in a benign fashion. This study documents the clinical course and pathologic findings of a tumor which began in the maxilla of a 4-month-old boy, followed by a local recurrence, metastasis to a cervical lymph node and finally, widespread dissemination and death at 18 months, 24 months and 38 months, respectively. The tumor was initially composed of nests consisting of melanin-containing cells and small dark cells. An elevated vanillylmandelic acid level was recorded during the course of the disease. At autopsy, the tumor in lymph nodes, liver, bone and soft tissues had a monotonous pattern of small dark cells similar to a conventional neuroblastoma. Previous ultrastructural studies indicate that the melanotic neuroectodermal tumor of infancy is composed of melanocytes and neuroblast-like cells. Our case provided the unique opportunity to examine in sequence the ultrastructural and in vitro characteristics of a recurring and eventually metastasizing melanotic neuroectodermal tumor. Although the neuroblast-like cells were initially difficult to identify by electron microscopy, a melanin-producing cell line and a separate nonpigmented cell line were successfully isolated from various tumor explants. Various stages of melanosome development were identified in the pigmented cells from the local recurrences and in vitro. Dibutyryl cAMP accentuated the formation of pigment and dendritic development in the melanocytes and dendrites only in the small nonpigmented cells. Electron dense granules were observed in the cultured smaller cells and also in the lymph node and soft tissue metastases. Tyrosine hydroxylase activity was demonstrated in the neuroblast-like cells. In the final biopsy and autopsy material, only the neuroblast-like cells remained and the tumor resembled a conventional neuroblastoma.
Cancer 1979 Apr
PMID:Malignant melanotic neuroectodermal tumor of infancy: a clinical, pathologic, ultrastructural and tissue culture study. 22 Oct 89

This report describes a unique clinicopathologic entity characterized as a malignant small cell tumor of the thoracopulmonary region in 20 children and adolescents (average age 14.5 years). There was a female predilection (75%) for this tumor which appeared to originate in the soft tissues of the chest wall or the peripheral lung. The neoplasm tended to recur locally and did not seem to disseminate as widely as some of the other small cell tumors of childhood (rhabdomyosarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma, neuroblastoma and malignant lymphoma). However, the median survival was only 8 months. Electron microscopy of 3 cases suggested a neuroepithelial derivation, but, at the present, the histogeneis remains a subject for further investigation.
Cancer 1979 Jun
PMID:Malignant small cell tumor of the thoracopulmonary region in childhood: a distinctive clinicopathologic entity of uncertain histogenesis. 22 26

The regulation of cyclic adenosine 3:5-monophosphate (cyclic AMP) phosphodiesterase activity in homogenates of malignant and cyclic AMP-induced "differentiated" neuroblastoma cells was studied. Neuroblastoma cells of at least three mouse and one human clone had both the low (2 to 4 muM) and the high (66 to 106 muM) Km phosphodiesterase. In cyclic AMP-induced differentiated cells the values of Km were decreased, whereas the values of Vmax appeared to be slightly increased. Magnesium and manganese stimulated phosphodiesterase activity. Calcium, zinc, copper, mercury, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, and imidazole completely inhibited phosphodiesterase activity in malignant cells, whereas the above agents, except ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, only partially inhibited enzyme activity in differentiated cells. Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid completely reduced phosphodiesterase activity in differentiated cells. The pH optimum for phosphodiesterase activity was about 8 in both malignant and differentiated cells. The present studies show that the values of Km and Vmax and the sensitivity of phosphodiesterase activity to divalent ions change in cyclic AMP-induced differentiated neuroblastoma cells, and therefore we propose that the reverse may be true during malignant transformation of nerve cells.
Cancer Res 1975 Jan
PMID:Cyclic adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate phosphodiesterase activity in malignant and cyclic adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate-induced "differentiated" neuroblastoma cells. 23 30

Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) activity has been determined in 22 neuroblastoma tumors from 15 patients, in 1 pheochromocytoma, 20 adrenal glands, 10 other tumors and organs, and 4 specimens of sera. The enzyme activity was found only in the neural crest tumors and adrenal glands, but the levels were too low to be detected in the other tumors and in normal liver and kidney tissues. The average specific activity (mean +/- SE) of TH in 23 neural crest tumors was 0.559 +/- 0.101; in 20 adrenal glands was 0.418 +/- 0.124 nmol/mg protein/minute. In 13 patients with neuroblastoma and 1 patient with pheochromocytoma, both TH levels in the primary tumors and urinary excretion of vanillylmandelic acid (VMA) and homovanillic acid (HVA) were studied. The urinary excretion of VMA by 10 of 13 neuroblastoma patients and by the patient with pheochromocytoma was significantly to markedly elevated above normal levels; excretion of HVA by 12 of 13 neuroblastoma patients was similarly elevated. These results indicate that tyrosine hydroxylase, an enzyme specifically located in the adrenal medulla and monoaminergic neurons, is also present in neuroblastoma, a malignant tumor of similar embryologic origin, and in pheochromocytoma. Not only can TH activity in these tumors be demonstrated in vitro, but the elevated urinary excretion of VMA and/or HVA by the majority of patients with these tumors also indicates TH activity of the tumors in vivo.
Cancer 1975 Aug
PMID:Studies on tyrosine hydroxylase in neuroblastoma in relation to urinary levels of catecholamine metabolites. 23 88

The inhibitors of cyclic AMP phosphodiesterase (papaverine and 4-(-3-butoxy-4-methoxybenzyl)-2-imidazolidinone), serum-free medium, and x irradiation caused cell death and neurite formation in human neuroblastoma cells in culture (IMR-32), whereas theophylline was ineffective. Prostaglandin (PG) E1, N6O'2-dibutyryl adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (dbcAMP) induced neurites without causing cell lethality. Inhibitors of phosphodiesterase and PGE1 increased the intracellular level of cAMP by about 2- and 4-fold respectively, whereas serum-free medium and x irradiation did not. The combination of PGE1 and phosphodiesterase inhibitor was more effective in causing morphological differentiation and in increasing the cAMP level than the individual agent. Sodium butyrate induced cell death and neurites, probably in part by increasing the cAMP level. cAMP, guanosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate, and adenosine had no detectable effect on the growth or morphology of neuroblastoma cells in culture. Adenosine 5'-monophosphate produced cell death without causing neurite formation. DbcAMP, and to a much lesser degree, sodium butyrate increased the tyrosine hydroxylase activity.
Cancer 1975 Oct
PMID:Role of cyclic AMP in differentiation of human neuroblastoma cells in culture. 24 May 3

Children with malignancies resistant to conventional therapy were treated with cis-diamminedichloroplatinum (PDD), 15 to 20 mg/m2, given daily by rapid intravenous infusion for 5 days at 3-wk intervals. Eleven of 24 children with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) received two or more courses; among these no remissions occurred. Fifty-four children with solid tumors were treated: 25 neuroblastoma, 9 rhabdomyosarcoma, 4 Ewing sarcoma, 2 testicular embryonal carcinoma, 2 retinoblastoma, and 12 miscellaneous tumors. One complete remission, 3 partial remissions, and 2 improvements were observed in children with neuroblastoma. One girl with metastatic osteogenic sarcoma achieved a partial remission. One child with metastatic testicular embryonal carcinoma showed improvement. The side effects were vomiting controlled by antiemetics in 26 children and transient elevations of serum creatinine and BUN in 14 children. Nineteen of 39 children with solid tumors, who received more than one course of PDD, had moderately severe myelosuppression caused by PDD. In summary, PDD is a promising agent in neuroblastoma, osteogenic sarcoma, and testicular embryonal carcinoma, and an ineffective agent in ALL. The effect of PDD on other types of solid tumors should be evaluated in the future.
 ...
PMID:Cis-diamminedichloroplatinum (NSC-119875) in childhood malignancies: a Southwest Oncology Group study. 27 32

A two-year-old boy with a malignant tumor of the brain (medulloblastoma) excreted large amounts of thymine and uracil in his urine. The excretion was related to progress and regress of the disease, and reached a maximum of 3.0 mol of thymine per mole of creatinine and 2.6 mol of uracil per mole of creatinine. The excretion by 20 apparently normal children was less than 0.01 mol/mol of creatinine for each of the two pyrimidines. Three children with brain tumors, two with leukemias, and one with neuroblastoma were also studied; two of them had a moderate increase in urinary pyrimidine excretion, but only up to 0.07 mol/mol of creatinine. The activity of dihydrouracil dehydrogenase (NADP+) (EC 1.3.1.2) in cultured fibroblasts from the patient was somewhat lower than in control fibroblasts. The tumor was considered to be the likely cause of the increased excretion of pyrimidines, but an impaired degradation of pyrimidines in the liver could not be ruled out.
 ...
PMID:Urinary excretion of thymine and uracil in a two-year-old child with a malignant tumor of the brain. 28 71

Two schedules of cis-dichlorodiammineplatinum(II) (cis-platinum) were evaluated for therapeutic efficacy and toxicity in children with malignant diseases resistant to standard therapy. Initially, cis-platinum was given as a rapid iv bolus injection at a dose of 15 mg/m2/day for 5 days every 3 weeks. The second schedule of cis-platinum was a dose of 1 mg/kg/week administered as an 8-hour infusion with mannitol. furosemide, and hydrating fluids. Using the daily schedule, no responses were seen among 23 children with acute lymphatic leukemia and only eight responses were noted among 47 children with solid tumors. Using the weekly schedule, three responses were noted among 25 children with solid tumors. Responses were observed in seven children with neuroblastoma, two with osteosarcoma, one with embryonal testicular carcinoma, and one with an endodermal sinus tumor. With one exception (a 4-year-old child with neuroblastoma), all responses were of short duration. The most common side effects with both schedules were nausea and vomiting which were usually controlled with antiemetics. The dose-limiting toxicity, especially on the 5-day schedule; was renal function impairment. Only one child who received cis-platinum weekly as an 8-hour infusion with diuresis had elevation of the serum creatinine level. Protocols are being initiated to determine the therapeutic effectiveness and toxicity of combination therapy with cis-platinum in children with neuroblastoma and osteosarcoma.
Cancer Treat Rep
PMID:Evaluation of cis-dichlorodiammineplatinum(II) in children with advanced malignant diseases: Southwest Oncology Group Studies. 29 82

cis-Dichlorodiammineplatinum(II) (cis-platinum) was evaluated in three separate studies at Roswell Park Memorial Institute in children and adolescents with cancer. In the first study, 16 patients with a variety of solid tumors were treated. Objective responses were seen in patients with neuroblastoma, osteogenic sarcoma, seminoma, and medullary carcinoma of the thyroid. In the second study, five of eight patients with far-advanced osteogenic sarcoma showed objective responses to cis-platinum. In the third study, cis-platinum and Adriamycin were employed as primary adjuvant chemotherapy along with surgery in osteogenic sarcoma. Nine of ten patients have remained disease-free from 8 to 31 months (mean, 19 months). cis-Platinum is an active agent in pediatric tumors.
Cancer Treat Rep
PMID:cis-Dichlorodiammineplatinum(II) in childhood cancer. 29 83

VP-16-213, a semisynthetic podophyliotoxin, was tested for antitumor and clinical toxicity in 126 children. The drug was administered iv daily x 5 days every 2 weeks at a starting dose of 75 mg/m2/day. The dose was increased by 25 mg/m2/day/course until clinical response or significant toxicity occurred. The only major toxicity was hematologic, with neutropenia as the most predominant feature. There was one local allergic reaction at the site of injection. No systemic allergic responses were reported. The drug demonstrated significant activity in acute myelomonocytic leukemia with four responses among 19 patients, less activity in acute myelocytic leukemia with two responses among 44 patients, and little activity in acute lymphocytic leukemia with only one partial response among 12 patients. Objective partial responses occurred in ten of 48 patients with solid tumors: two each with Wilms' tumor, lymphoma, and histiocytosis X, and one each with rhabdomyosarcoma, neuroblastoma, Ewing's sarcoma, and undifferentiated carcinoma. The inclusion of VP-16-213 in combination chemotherapy for childhood acute myelomonocytic leukemia and acute myelocytic leukemia appears indicated in patients relapsing after initial therapy. For solid tumors this is an interim report, with further patient accrual required before specific comments can be made.
Cancer Treat Rep
PMID:Phase II study of VP-16-213 in childhood malignant disease: a Children's Cancer Study Group Report. 29 6


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