Two autologous stem-cell transplants provide better event-free survival in patients with high-risk neuroblastoma, compared with a single stem-cell transplant, a clinical trial shows.

Researchers from 142 Children’s Oncology Group centres in five countries, including Australia and New Zealand, investigated whether intensifying consolidation treatment with tandem transplant (two transplants, 6-10 weeks apart) could improve event-free survival compared with a single transplant.

They enrolled 355 patients aged under 30 with high-risk neuroblastoma (median age three years).

The three-year event-free survival (no progression, relapse, second malignancy or death from any cause) from the time of randomisation was significantly higher in the tandem-transplant group than in the single-transplant group (61.6% versus 48.4%), the team reported in JAMA.