We are the combination of four hospitals: the General Hospital, the Children’s Hospital, the Women’s Hospital and the Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospital. We are part of the Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus: a world-leading health park where healthcare plays a crucial role.
Below we will list the departments and units that form part of Vall d’Hebron Hospital and the main diseases that we treat. We will also make recommendations based on advice backed up by scientific evidence that has been shown to be effective in guaranteeing well-being and quality of life.
Would you like to know what your stay at Vall d'Hebron will be like? Here you will find all the information.
The commitment of Vall d'Hebron University Hospital to innovation allows us to be at the forefront of medicine, providing first class care adapted to the changing needs of each patient.
Neuroblastoma is one of the most common cancers in children under five, and makes up half of all cancers in babies. It is very unusual for this type of cancer to occur in older children or teenagers. Neuroblastoma starts in embryo cells made up of ganglia from the sympathetic nervous system and adrenal medulla, and therefore may appear in different locations and with many different clinical presentations.
It is not currently known what causes them, but they are understood to often be hereditary. Approximately two thirds of neuroblastoma occur in the adrenal glands (found above the kidneys) or near the spinal cord in the nerve cells that control the heart beat, blood pressure and digestion. Neuroblastoma may also appear in the chest, neck or pelvis. During diagnosis they are often found to have already spread; there may be metastasis in the lymph nodes, liver, bones, bone marrow or other organs.
Neuroblastoma may be divided into two types of tumour:
The first symptoms of neuroblastoma may be imprecise and include fatigue, weight loss or weight gain.
Abdominal tumours may cause abdominal pain or difficulty urinating or with bowel movements.
Tumours pressing on the spinal cord may cause weakness in the arms and legs and the patient may find it difficult to move their arms or to walk.
If the tumour has spread to the bones, it may cause pain and, if it has spread around the eyes, it may cause bulging eyes and dark circles. There may also be inflammation or a lump around the affected tissue. Other less common symptoms are weight loss and fever.
Malignant neoplasms in children and teenagers are rare, but they are one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality in these age groups. Around 1,000 patients under 14 years of age are diagnosed with cancer every year in Spain. Neuroblastoma makes up 10% of cancers in children.
If the doctor believes the child may have a neuroblastoma, he/she will carry out a very precise examination and request several diagnostic tests to determine the size and location of the tumour. The most common tests are:
Treatment is administered taking into account the state of the disease, the child’s age and the location of the tumour.
Some low-risk neuroblastoma may disappear without treatment, and others can be cured with surgical treatment alone. However, many tumours in the “high-risk” category will already have spread tumour cells to other parts of the body, and in these cases it is necessary to use a combination of chemotherapy, surgery, radiotherapy, bone marrow transplant and immunotherapy.
There are currently no measures to prevent this kind of tumour.
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