Background: The second most common solid tumor in children is Neuroblastoma (NB). In about 90% of cases of NB, elevated levels of catecholamines or its metabolites are found in the urine or blood which includes Vanillylmandelic Acid (VMA) and Homovanillic Acid (HVA). Ferritin, Neuron-Specific Enolase (NSE) and Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) are commonly assessed in children suspected to have NB, and the levels of these markers are commonly used for differential diagnosis. Multiple clinical and imaging tests are needed for accurate patient assessment. Iodine 123(123I) Metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) is the first-line functional imaging agent used in neuroblastoma imaging. To evaluate the utility of these marker present study was undertaken with 91 NB patients and 40 normal healthy control.Methods: The study comprised of blood samples and 24 hour’s urine sample from 40 normal healthy subjects and 91 untreated patients with histologically proven Stage III and IV NB cases referred to our institute. Method used for NSE was Enzyme Immunoassay (Elisa), serum Ferritin was MIA, LDH-photometry and VMA by Column Chromatography.Results: Amongst the parameters studied VMA showed highest sensitivity (91%), specificity (94.4%) positive predictive value (97.8%) and 85% negative predictive value at the cut off levels of 7mg/ ml of creatinine as compared to other studied parameters.Conclusions: This study suggests that the detection of VMA in combination with routine histological examination, MIBG scan, serum NSE and LDH may improve the diagnosis of Neuroblastoma.

Background: Multiple myeloma (MM) is cancer of the plasma cell characterized by interpatient heterogeneity, in most of the cases it is incurable. It is the second most common hematological malignancy. Overall survival of patients has significantly increased recently. Lot of research is going on for prognostic factors, which can predict disease and response to therapy. During the past decades, biomarkers: M protein and β2 microglobulin have shaped the knowledge about MM. This study was undertaken to evaluate the role of prognostic factors in newly diagnosed and few follow up patients of MM before, during and after the treatment in Indian population.Methods: We analyzed 177 samples (90 MM patients and 87 healthy control) for creatinine, calcium, phosphorus, LDH, total protein, albumin, globulin, β2M, Immunoglobulines (Igs), IgG, IgA, IgM, Kappa light chain and Lambda light chains, serum protein electrophoresis (SPE) and immunofixation electrophoresis (IFE).Results: The result of our study are significant at p<0.0001 for creatinine, β2M, LDH, albumin, globulin and immunoglobulins whereas for calcium and phosphorus results are not significant at p<0.005. We observed that the levels of β2m, creatinine, LDH and M band concentration declined during the treatment (chemotherapy).Conclusions: We conclude that these results will help the clinicians to tailor-made the chemotherapy doses for betterment of patients and improve survival rate in MM patients.

Multiple myeloma is a prototype of plasma cell dyscrasias characterized by monoclonal abnormal proliferation of immunoglobulin secreting plasma cell in the bone marrow ; resulting in production of monoclonal (M) protein (IgG,IgA,IgM,IgD) and or light chain concentrations (kappa or lamda) identified by protein electrophoresis and or immunofixation of serum or urine. The term biclonal multiple myeloma are defined by coexistence of two different M components, which could be either from a single clone or two separate clones producing two distinct bands in electrophoresis and or immunofixation of serum or urine. Biclonal gammopathy is a rare entity with upto 1% of newly diagnosed case of multiple myeloma have two M component in serum immunofixation electrophoresis. Here we share our experience of four cases of biclonal myeloma successfully diagnosed and treated with standard chemotherapy with satisfactory clinical outcome from a single tertiary care centre.