Results in children with local and regional neuroblastoma managed with and without vincristine, cyclophosphamide, and imidazolecarboxamide: A report from the Children's Cancer Study Group

Members of children's cancer study group designed Study CCG 351 to determine whether three drug chemotherapy improved the survival experience of children with localized neuroblastoma. Patients in stages I-III were treated with surgical removal of the primary tumor and those in stages II and III received radiation therapy to the tumor bed and chemotherapy. Treatment included cyclophosphamide, imidazolecarboxamide, and vincristine given in 5-day pulses each month for 12 courses. The results were compared to those from a previous study, CCG 011, for localized neuroblastoma, in which children were randomized between a treatment regimen that included cyclophosphamide and one with no chemotherapy. There were 133 evaluable patients, subdivided as follows: stages I-26, stages II-74, and stages III-33. The 3-year life-table survival rates by stage of 96, 89 and 50% were not significantly different from the patients in CCG 011 similarly staged who received either no chemotherapy or oral CPM. These data suggest that multiagent chemotherapy, as prescribed, did not improve the outlook for children with locally advanced but nonmetastatic neuroblastoma. The staging criteria employed showed a modest difference in outcome between patients in stages I and II, but a significant poorer survival for stage III as compared to either stage I or II.