Hello,
I am wondering about the clinical diagnostic procedure for both neuroblastoma and pheochromocytoma. What are the differences between these two tumours besides the age? Or is there any case where pheochromocytoma was observed in children? Does neuroblastoma also shows hypersecretion of catecholamines?
Thank you in advance.
Tuba Sahin
There are a several differences besides age.... pheochromocytomas often present with episodic hypertention and only about 10% are malignant whereas a most neuroblastomas are malignant. Neuroblastomas may arise not only in adrenal tissue, but also in other sites that contain neuroblasts. Both can hypersecrete catecholamines and be positive for VMA. There are also genetic differences. Some NBs are associated with high level amplification of MYCN. Few NB's are familial. Some PCC's are associated with VHL and NF1 mutations and up to a quarter may be familial (patient may have von Hippel–Lindau disease or neurofibromatosis).
These linked articles might be useful. You can find nfo about both of them. Hope it helps.
http://bmcmedgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1755-8794-5-48
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11830391
Dear Pawel, thank you very much for your answer. In general I find "classification system" very helpful to understand concepts however where i am confused is the specific differences between stage 4S neuroblastoma and pheochromocytoma. Can you refer me to the any source which also makes clear distinction between these two conditions?
I think these resources may be helpful in showing clinical, diagnostic, gross pathology and microscopic pathological differences between NB (http://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/adrenalneuroblastoma.html) and PCC (http://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/adrenalpheochromocytoma.html). I hope these help. 4S is dx under the age of 1 and there are even case studies of prenatally diagnosed cases by ultrasound.
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