Autoantibody signature differentiates Wilms tumor patients from neuroblastoma patients

Several studies report autoantibody signatures in cancer. The majority of these studies analyzed adult tumors and compared the seroreactivity pattern of tumor patients with the pattern in healthy controls. Here, we compared the autoimmune response in patients with neuroblastoma and patients with Wilms tumor representing two different childhood tumors. We were able to differentiate untreated neuroblastoma patients from untreated Wilms tumor patients with an accuracy of 86.8%, a sensitivity of 87.0% and a specificity of 86.7%. The separation of treated neuroblastoma patients from treated Wilms tumor patients' yielded comparable results with an accuracy of 83.8%. We furthermore identified the antigens that contribute most to the differentiation between both tumor types. The analysis of these antigens revealed that neuroblastoma was considerably more immunogenic than Wilms tumor. The reported antigens have not been found to be relevant for comparative analyses between other tumors and controls. In summary, neuroblastoma appears as a highly immunogenic tumor as demonstrated by the extended number of antigens that separate this tumor from Wilms tumor.     

Teenagers as patients

Adolescents tend to abandon the program of preventive and therapeutic medical care established for them in infancy by pediatrician and parents. Factors in this resistance were analyzed, and a teenage clinic was established. In review of experience over a four-year period, during which the number of appointments monthly rose from 20 to 300, it was noted that the needs of adolescents are related to their stage of development. In the teenage clinic the adolescent assumes an increasingly important role in communication between himself and the physician, with concurrent diminution of the parental role. Special goals of medical counseling of adolescents include strengthening of parent-adolescent relationships and adjustment of the teenager to school and community. The adolescent requests information about normal and abnormal growth and development (obesity, acne, sexual changes). Somatic abnormalities noted on physical examination were of three classes: (1) "Normal" deviations (male gynecomastia, adolescent striae, functional heart murmurs). (2) Medical problems usual to persons of any age. (3) Comparatively rare entities (lupus erythematosus disseminatus, Laurence-Moon-Biedel syndrome).     

Calling all patients

Disease-orientated consumer online communities radically change the way in which individuals monitor their health, but they could also create new ways of testing treatments and speed patient recruitment into clinical trials.