A Q-PCR study for mycn (2p24) amplification in neuroblastoma

Abstract

Neuroblastoma (NB) is a primitive neuronal tumor of sympathetic nervous tumor. It is the most common solid tumor of childhood that arising from neural crest cells during development. Over the past decade, advances in the clinical staging of NB have improved risk stratification. Of note, the high-risk Neuroblastoma patient is often targeted to high dose myeloablative therapy with allogeneic or autologous bone marrow transplantation. The high risk NB are reported with high frequency of alterations based on the most significantly known genes, MYCN (2p24) amplification, which is detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analyses. Recently, quantitative PCR has proven to be a good alternative for the detection of gene copy number changes. Changes in copy number of genes contribute to the pathogenesis of various genetic disorders and cancer. The status of a gene has not only diagnostic value but sometimes directs treatment stratification. This molecular diagnosis is important to improve the changes of different genetic events in high risk NB stage IV. Key words: Neuroblastoma, MYCN, Real-time PCR