Studying Biomarkers in Samples From Patients With High-Risk Neuroblastoma

OBJECTIVES:

• To establish telomere length measurement by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) as an alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) detection method in neuroblastoma (NB).
• To determine the frequency of ALT in high-risk NB and the characteristics of ALT+ NB.
• To establish C-circle (extra-chromosomal telomeric DNA circles) level as a marker of ALT activity in NB.
• To evaluate the prognostic significance of ALT in NB.
• To evaluate the utility of the C-circle assay for the detection of circulating tumor DNA in NB patients with an ALT+ tumor.

OUTLINE: Archived tumor tissue and serum samples are analyzed for telomere length measurement, frequency, and C-circle levels by PCR. Results are then compared with patients' age at diagnosis and outcomes including survival data (event-free and overall survival).

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Snap-frozen neuroblastoma (NB) tumors collected at diagnosis (Objectives 1 to 3)

• High-risk stage 3 or 4 NB AND MYCN non-amplified, i.e., exclude stage 4 infants who are not high-risk

• Up to five high-risk (> 18 months, unfavorable histology) stage 3/MYCN non-amplified tumors
• Patients preferably treated on protocol COG-A3973 or similar protocols with myeloablative therapy
• At least 3 years of follow-up for those with no event (current evidence suggests that ALT+ NBs often relapse late, i.e., 2 years or longer from diagnosis)
• NB tumor DNA collected at diagnosis (Objectives 2 & 3)

• High-risk stage 3 or 4 NB as for Objective 1, except for MYCN status
• Stage 4 tumors are preferred; may include up to seven high-risk stage 3 tumors with similar distribution of MYCN-amplified and non-amplified tumors
• Frozen serum from NB patients (Objective 5; 2nd stage of project)

• Paired serum obtained at diagnosis from patients with ALT+ or ALT- tumors identified in Objective 2

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• Not specified

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• See Disease Characteristics