Neuroblastoma Patient Bone Marrow Sampling

Six de-identified neuroblastoma patient bone marrow samples were obtained from subjects enrolled on Children’s Oncology Group trial ADVL0912 (NCT00939770) (31 (link)). Written informed consent from parents or guardians was obtained, and the institutional review boards of participating institutions approved the protocol. Four additional de-identified and discarded bone marrow samples were obtained from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; the use of these de-identified samples is not human subjects’ research according to our Institutional Review Board, thereby waiving the need for consent. Peripheral blood for spiking experiments was obtained from normal donors after obtaining written informed consent and using protocols approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania. Buffy coats from bone marrow were enriched by Ficoll centrifugation (GE Healthcare Life Sciences, Piscataway, NJ, USA). If cells were not immediately used for additional assays, fixation was performed using Miltenyi Inside Fix (Miltenyi Biotec Inc., Auburn, CA, USA).