Prenatal Detection of an Extra-Adrenal Neuroblastoma With Hepatic Metastases

Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial solid cancer in children and the most frequent cancer in infancy. The neoplasm arises from neuroblasts (pluripotent sympathetic cells) found in many locations within the body. More than half of neuroblastomas arise in the abdomen, and two-thirds of these originate in an adrenal gland. However, detection in neonates is distinctly uncommon, and because most of these are situated in the adrenal gland, extra-adrenal lesions in the neonate are rare. Fetal detection is even rarer, and the paucity of reports in the literature attests to this (Table 1).(1-8) We report a case in which sonography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were used in the detection and evaluation of an extra-adrenal metastatic neuroblastoma in a fetus.