h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm a bit confused here, has your Naked Mole Rats article gone missing? I wanted to read it. Where has it gone? Are you able to recover it?

here it is, when i sent it to you it was being picked for the edited guide, but here is the edtited verson

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A6083732

I found it thanks! I thought it was very good.

Here is copy of part of e-mail my niece sent me.

"Neuroblastoma is a common tumor in children and it can affect any site of the body that has sympathetic nervous system tissue. Some facts about neuroblastoma include:
annual incidence of 1 per 100,000 children
about 500 new cases in the US each year
more common in Caucasians than in African-Americans
average age of diagnosis is 2 years
most frequently diagnosed cancer in infants
90% of children are diagnosed by age 5
accounts for 8% of childhood cancer
most common solid tumor in children outside of the central nervous system
Neuroblastoma can present as an abdominal mass, where it usually affects the adrenal glands, or as a mass in the chest, pelvis or the head and/or neck. Symptoms depend on where the tumor is and can include pain and obstruction (intestinal blockage) in the abdomen, difficulty breathing or swallowing if it is in the chest, and constipation or difficulty urinating if it is in the pelvis.
Other findings that can be associated with neuroblastoma may include Horner syndrome, in which one eyelid droops, and the pupil of the same eye is constricted (miosis) and doesn't dilate like the other pupil, opsoclonus or chaotic eye movements, with irregular jerking of the eyes in all directions, myoclonus, which are irregular muscle contractions, high blood pressure and diarrhea. Metastases (usually to lymph nodes, the liver and bones) can cause other symptoms, including fever, irritability, poor weight gain, bone pain, a limp, back pain, decreased muscle tone, absent or decreased reflexes, changes in bowel or bladder function, or periorbital ecchymoses (bruising of the skin around the upper eyelids, also called 'raccoon eyes').
Diagnosis of the primary tumor and a workup for metastasis will probably include a CT or MRI of the chest and abdomen, urine testing for homovanillic acid (HVA) and vanillylmandelic acid (VMA), which are tumor markers, bone marrow biopsy, bone scan , and a chest x-ray.
Treatment depends on the stage of the tumor, the patient's age and other factors and can include surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy.
Prognosis depends on the patient's age (usually better if younger than 1 years old), stage of disease and other factors.

So its not a brain tumour. Where does Bobby have the cancer? What stage is it at?

Basically, Bobby has an abnormality where some of his neuroblast cells have gone a bit crazy, triggerred by something (usually hereditary), and are now dividing to produce lots more of the same cells, very quickly, and thats why there is a lump of excess tissue. Neuroblasts are immature nervous cells -kids have lots of them because in adults they have developed into proper neurons, or been deleted.

Neuroblastoma is a unique cancer in many ways. It is one of the few cancers in children that release hormones that can cause strange changes in the body, such as constant diarrhea. It can also cause changes in the some functions of the brain, such as opsoclonus (rotary movements of the eyes) and myoclonus (spastic jerks of the muscles).

The tumor itself can behave strangely. Sometimes the cells die without any cause and the tumor disappears. This is part of a normal process known as programmed cell death (apoptosis), the normal process that occurs when cells die. This tumor disappearance is much more common in very young infants than in older children. Another behavior that is unusual for childhood tumors is that the cells sometimes mature spontaneously to normal ganglion cells and stop dividing. This causes the tumor to become a ganglioneuroma, which is benign (non-cancerous)."

Hope that has been helpful for you.

Sherry