Objective This study aimed to analyse the efficacy of autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation for high-risk neuroblastoma in China. Methods The data of 90 high-risk neuroblastoma patients treated with the CCCG-NB 2015 regimen at the Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute & Hospital were reviewed. The baseline clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of were analysed and compared. In addition, the prognoses of tandem autologous stem cell transplantation and single autologous stem cell transplantation groups were compared. Results The results of survival analysis showed that autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation based on this pretreatment regimen significantly improved the prognosis of children in the high-risk group. The 3-year event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) rates for the transplantation group and the nontransplantation group were 65.5% vs. 41.3% (P=0.023) and 77.1% vs. 57.9% (P=0.03), respectively. There was no difference in the distribution of baseline clinical case characteristics between the single transplantation group and the tandem transplantation group (P>0.05), and there was no significant difference in EFS and OS between the two groups (P>0.05). Conclusion Based on this pretreatment programme, autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation is safe and tolerable and significantly improves the prognosis of children in the high-risk group. The value of tandem autologous stem cell transplantation is worthy of further discussion, which should consider various aspects such as the transplantation plan and the patient’s state.

Purpose: To explore the correlations between neuron‑specific enolase (NSE) and the metabolic parameters such as the maximum uptake (SUVmax), metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG), determined by fluorine‑18 fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT) in pediatric patients with newly diagnosed neuroblastoma(NB). Method: Data from 43 patients with newly diagnosed NB between December 2013 and December 2019 were collected. The serum levels of NSE were measured at the time of diagnosis, and 18F-FDG PET/CT examinations were performed within 1 weeks. The metabolic parameters of the primary tumor lesion s such as SUVmax, MTV and TLG were calculated by 18F-FDG PET/CT. Pearson correlation analyses were applied to investigate the correlations between the serum levels of NSE and PET/CT findings. Result: NSE had strong correlations with SUVmax, MTV and TLG (r=0.521, P<0.001; r=0.520, P<0.001; r=0.442, P=0.003, respectively) using Pearson correlation analyses. The Mann-Whitney U tests showed that the values of SUVmax, MTV and TLG were significantly higher for the patients with NSE levels ≥100 ug/L (P=0.013, P=0.013 and P=0.002, respectively) and for patients with serum NSE levels larger than the cut-off value (P=0.004, P=0.008 and P<0.001, respectively). Conclusion: In patients with newly diagnosed NB, the metabolic parameters determined by 18F-FDG PET/CT could be considered as accurate markers of tumor burden, with MTV and TLG more sensitive than SUVmax. When abnormal NSE level were detected in a pediatric patient with NB, the higher the NSE level was, the larger the SUVmax MTV and TLG were.