Bone mineral density in newly diagnosed children with neuroblastoma.

Background: Neuroblastoma is the second most common extracranial malignant tumor of childhood and the most common solid tumor of infancy which is characterized by bone metastasis. Previous reports on bone mineral density (BMD) in patients with leukemia and solid malignancies concentrate on long-term survivors and on the effect of chemotherapeutic agents and irradiation. Also, evaluation of BMD in neuroblastoma was reported in few studies which were conducted upon adult survivors of childhood cancer. Previous studies on both acute leukemia and lymphoma patients suggested that the disease process itself played a role in decrease BMD.

Methods: We evaluated 27 patients with newly diagnosed neuroblastoma for both lumbar (L2-L4) BMD and total BMD using dual energy X-ray absorptiometery (DXA) scan to highlight the effect of neuroblastoma as a disease process on BMD as this disease characterized by bone metastasis.

Results: Three out of the 27 patients showed low bone mass in both lumbar and total BMD studies.

Conclusion: Low bone mass may occur in early disease process of neuroblastoma and it is important to consider BMD assessment during the early course of the disease as well as the long-term survivors as a part of the patient screening in suspected cases.