Low expression of Wnt-5a gene is associated with high-risk neuroblastoma

Disseminated forms of neuroblastoma (NB), a tumor derived from neuroectodermal tissue, pose a major therapeutic challenge for pediatric oncology. By performing a comparative cDNA array analysis of metastatic neuroblasts versus primary xenograft from the human IGR-N-91 NB model, we were able to identify a set of downregulated developmental genes in metastatic neuroblasts. One of these genes was Wnt-5a , a member of the Wnt signaling pathway, known to be involved in the development of neural crest cells. Since we also found a significant decrease in Wnt-5a mRNA in unfavorable versus favorable categories in 37 primary NB tumors ( P