High-Risk Neuroblastoma: New Clinical Insights and Challenges

Dear Colleagues,

Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial solid tumor in young children, typically presenting at an average age of 1 to 2 years. Occasionally, newborns can present with metastatic neuroblastoma, but adolescents or younger adults can also be affected. In newborns, even disseminated neuroblastoma can spontaneously regress without any therapy, whereas metastasized neuroblastoma in toddlers and older patients is highly agressive and associated with a poor prognosis. Approximately half of the toddlers and older children present with a local tumor (low risk) with a good prognosis and the other half with a disseminated tumor (high risk) and a poor prognosis. These features make neuroblastoma to a tumor with one of the highest spontaneous regression rates on the one side and one of the most aggressive tumors on the other side, due to its tendency to relapse after initial treatment. The biology behind these features begin slowly to be understood, but there are still major challenges, especially in the treatment for the high-risk patients. Current therapy concepts comprise intensive chemotherapy, radiation, autologous or even allogeneic stem cell transplantation, targeted therapies, tumor vaccination approaches, monoclonal antibodies, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells, and their combinations.

In this Special Issue, we welcome authors to submit original papers or reviews on current and future new diagnostic and treatment strategies which will hopefully improve the currently poor prognosis of children with high-risk neuroblastoma.

Prof. Dr. Rupert Handgretinger
Prof. Dr. Johannes Hubertus Schulte
Guest Editors

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