A Comprehensive Analysis of Neuroblastoma Incidence, Survival, and Racial and Ethnic Disparities From 2001 to 2019

Authors

Kevin Campbell
David A Siegel
Puja J Umaretiya
Shifan Dai
Andras Heczey
Philip J Lupo
Jeremy M Schraw
Trevor D Thompson
Michael E Scheurer
Jennifer H Foster

Publication Date

1-1-2024

Journal

Pediatric Blood & Cancer

DOI

10.1002/pbc.30732

PMID

37867409

PMCID

D: PMC11018254

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

1-1-2025

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Published Open-Access

yes

Keywords

Adolescent, Child, Female, Humans, Male, Young Adult, Ethnicity, Hispanic or Latino, Incidence, Neuroblastoma, United States, Black or African American, White, epidemiology, neuroblastoma, outcomes research

Abstract

BACKGROUND: We characterize the incidence and 5-year survival of children and adolescents with neuroblastoma stratified by demographic and clinical factors based on the comprehensive data from United States Cancer Statistics (USCS) and the National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR).

METHODS: We analyzed the incidence of neuroblastoma from USCS (2003-2019) and survival data from NPCR (2001-2018) for patients less than 20 years old. Incidence trends were calculated by average annual percent change (AAPC) using joinpoint regression. Differences in relative survival were estimated comparing non-overlapping confidence intervals (CI).

RESULTS: We identified 11,543 primary neuroblastoma cases in USCS. Age-adjusted incidence was 8.3 per million persons [95% CI: 8.2, 8.5], with an AAPC of 0.4% [95% CI: -0.1, 0.9]. Five-year relative survival from the NPCR dataset (n = 10,676) was 79.7% [95% CI: 78.9, 80.5]. Patients aged less than 1 year had the highest 5-year relative survival (92.5%). Five-year relative survival was higher for non-Hispanic White patients (80.7%) or Hispanic patients (80.8%) compared to non-Hispanic Black patients (72.6%).

CONCLUSION: Neuroblastoma incidence was stable during 2003-2019. Differences in relative survival exist by sex, age, race/ethnicity, and stage; patients who were male, older, non-Hispanic Black, or with distant disease had worse survival. Future studies could seek to assess the upstream factors driving disparities in survival, and evaluate interventions to address inequities and improve survival across all groups.