Who can enter
- Children with newly diagnosed neuroblastoma (all stages)
- Age: 1-18 years
Goal
The goal of this study is to monitor the immune system during (immuno)therapy. There are several types of cells in the blood involved in the immune system. We will look at the effect on NK cells, effector T cells and Treg cells, among others. We will also study the blood levels of dinutuximab.
Background
The treatment of children with neuroblastoma depends on several factors. The immune system is involved in the treatment of children with neuroblastoma. However, little is known about the composition of the immune system of these children and to what extent this is indicative of the success or failure of this treatment.
A part of the patients is treated with dinutuximab. We know that this medicine has influence on the immune cells. This is the reason why we want to look at the amount of dinutuximab in the blood.
It depends on the treatment group how long this study takes. This can be a onetime blood draw during diagnosis or several blood draws during the treatment of children with high risk neuroblastoma.
For this study, 5 ml extra blood will be drawn at diagnosis for children with low and mid-risk neuroblastoma. In children with high-risk neuroblastoma, we will collect an additional 5 ml of blood up to 25 times at diagnosis and during treatment.
The blood is collected during scheduled blood draws and no additional punctures are given. In the blood, we can measure the presence and activity of immune cells. This will provide us with a lot of information about the immune system and whether specific cells affect the success or failure of treatment.
The risks are negligible and there is no additional burden on the patient.