Correlation of ALK expression with traditional prognostic
parameters
The overall survival correlated with patient’s age (p=0.03), stage
(p=0.01), morphology (p=0.036) and INRG risk groups (p=0.0001) as
previously reported.15 There was no correlation of ALK
protein expression with INRG subgroups although higher levels were
observed in the high-risk group (Fig.4A). Univariate analysis revealed
ALK protein expression did not significantly correlate with the outcome
(Fig.4B); furthermore, the combination of ALK protein expression withMYCN amplification status also revealed no association
with the outcome (Fig.4C). In ALK positive cases (Table 1),MYCN amplification revealed no association with outcome (Fig.4C).
Hence, we analyzed the effect of morphology on outcome within the group
of ALK positive cases which revealed that ALK positive poorly
differentiated neuroblastomas had better survival (p=0.02) than the
other subgroups which had almost similar overall survival (Fig.4D).