Diagnostic Testing & Technology Report

An international team of researchers has identified a chromosomal region that is the source of genetic events that give rise to neuroblastoma, an often fatal childhood cancer of the peripheral nervous system that usually appears as a solid tumor in the chest or abdomen. In a study published May 7 in the New England Journal of Medicine online, the investigators found that the presence of common DNA variations in the 6p22 region of chromosome 6 raises the risk that a child will develop a particularly aggressive form of neuroblastoma.