Stopping Neuroblastma Before it Kills!!!

Gupta A., Williams B.R., Hannash S.M., and Rawwas J. (2006, August 15). Cellular Retinoic Acid-Binding Protein II Is a Direct Transcriptional Target of MycN in Neuroblastoma. Cancer research, 66, 8100-8108.

Drug Week (2006, October 27). Neuroblastoma therapeutic target in cellular retinoic acid-binding protein II found.

Both the primary and secondary article describes the knowledge about Neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is the most common cancer during childhood, which forms in the nerve tissue. Neuroblastoma is a heterogeneous disease that involves MycN ocogene. MycN is a transcription factor that regulates the number of proteins in neuroblastoma. The researchers already knew that once the acid binding protein II called CRABP II is turned on, there is a rapid development of neuroblastoma tumor. Thus the researchers wanted to determine why CRABP II has an effect on the proliferation of neuroblastoma.
Gupta et al. hypothesized that if MycN activates CRABP II to always stay on, this will cause a more rapid development of the nueroblastoma tumor. To illustrate they decided to do an experiment using a two dimensional gel. They took varying amounts of protein and placed them into the gel; the proteins traveled freely throughout the gel. Once a protein connected to CRABP II the device would light up, informing that CRABP II was present. As they repeated this experiment they realized the frequency that the different proteins would attach to CRABP II.
Analyzing the results the researchers noticed that CRABP II expression was observed in nine of the fourteen gels, indicating that the MycN tumor showed a high CRABP II expression. They concluded that CRABP II is expressed at high levels in MycN neuroblastoma tumor.
The summary article found in drug week is mainly a direct quotation from the abstract of the primary article; therefore, that section is identical. The secondary article includes the contact information incase the reader wants to access the full primary article. However the primary study describes the method, results, and full detail explanation of the research on the relationship among CRABP II, MycN and neuroblastoma.
I don’t mistrust the secondary article because it presents the goals and the result of the experiment; this article is probably intended for scientific readers who wish to learn more about neuroblastoma. After reading both articles I was more interested in the primary study because I felt more involved throughout the process and had a better and clear understand of the effect MycN and CRABP II have on neuroblastoma.

Questions:
Once a patient realize that they have neuroblastma what is the next step?
How long will the treatment take for the neuroblastma tumor to be removed or cured?

Articles that have been cited:
Ishola T.A, Chung D.H, (2007). Neuroblastoma. Surgical Oncology, 209-310.
Wang J.X, Chen J., Wang D, (2007) Expression and functional analysis of cellular retinoic acid binding protein from silkworm pupae. Journal of cellular biochemistry.