Biomaterial Database

Serum ferritin in stage IV neuroblastoma. 1988

S Imashuku, and H Yamanaka, and Y Morioka, and S Todo

Department of Pediatrics, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Japan.

Serum ferritin is known to be one of the tumor markers for neuroblastoma. Serum ferritin is elevated in most children with neuroblastoma who are in stages III or IV, but it is not elevated in those in stage I or II. It has also been observed that iron load caused by blood transfusion shows a greater effect on serum ferritin levels than tumor activity due to neuroblastoma. Thus, serum ferritin increases in a linear fashion in children given repeated blood transfusions but the levels increase exponentially in children who have bulky neuroblastomas. Thus, serum ferritin values must be interpreted with caution in patients with advanced stages of neuroblastoma who inevitably require blood transfusions. The authors propose that the pretransfusion and posttransfusion serum ferritin values be in comparison with other tumor markers such as urinary VMA, urinary HVA, and neuron specific enolase. The serum ferritin level should not be used as a sole indicator of tumor activity in neuroblastoma.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008297	Male		Males
D009367	Neoplasm Staging	Methods which attempt to express in replicable terms the extent of the neoplasm in the patient.	Cancer Staging,Staging, Neoplasm,Tumor Staging,TNM Classification,TNM Staging,TNM Staging System,Classification, TNM,Classifications, TNM,Staging System, TNM,Staging Systems, TNM,Staging, Cancer,Staging, TNM,Staging, Tumor,System, TNM Staging,Systems, TNM Staging,TNM Classifications,TNM Staging Systems
D009447	Neuroblastoma	A common neoplasm of early childhood arising from neural crest cells in the sympathetic nervous system, and characterized by diverse clinical behavior, ranging from spontaneous remission to rapid metastatic progression and death. This tumor is the most common intraabdominal malignancy of childhood, but it may also arise from thorax, neck, or rarely occur in the central nervous system. Histologic features include uniform round cells with hyperchromatic nuclei arranged in nests and separated by fibrovascular septa. Neuroblastomas may be associated with the opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome. (From DeVita et al., Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology, 5th ed, pp2099-2101; Curr Opin Oncol 1998 Jan;10(1):43-51)	Neuroblastomas
D001803	Blood Transfusion	The introduction of whole blood or blood component directly into the blood stream. (Dorland, 27th ed)	Blood Transfusions,Transfusion, Blood,Transfusions, Blood
D002648	Child	A person 6 to 12 years of age. An individual 2 to 5 years old is CHILD, PRESCHOOL.	Children
D005293	Ferritins	Iron-containing proteins that are widely distributed in animals, plants, and microorganisms. Their major function is to store IRON in a nontoxic bioavailable form. Each ferritin molecule consists of ferric iron in a hollow protein shell (APOFERRITINS) made of 24 subunits of various sequences depending on the species and tissue types.	Basic Isoferritin,Ferritin,Isoferritin,Isoferritin, Basic
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man