Imbalance between genomic gain and loss identifies high-risk neuroblastoma patients with worse outcomes.

Survival in high-risk neuroblastoma (HR-NB) patients remains poor despite multimodal treatment. We aimed to identify HR-NB patients with worse outcomes by analyzing the genomic instability derived from segmental chromosomal aberrations. We calculated 3 genomic instability indexes for primary tumor SNP array profiles from 127 HR-NB patients: (1) Copy number aberration burden (%gains+%losses), (2) copy number load (CNL) (%gains-%losses) and (3) net genomic load (NGL) (%gains-%losses).

Impact of extracellular matrix stiffness on genomic heterogeneity in MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma cell line.

Background: Increased tissue stiffness is a common feature of malignant solid tumors, often associated with metastasis and poor patient outcomes. Vitronectin, as an extracellular matrix anchorage glycoprotein related to a stiff matrix, is present in a particularly increased quantity and specific distribution in high-risk neuroblastoma. Furthermore, as cells can sense and transform the proprieties of the extracellular matrix into chemical signals through mechanotransduction, genotypic changes related to stiffness are possible.