To better understand neuroblastoma differentiation, we used microarray analysis to identify common gene expression changes from three differentiation models. This revealed STMN4 and ROBO2 to be consistently up-regulated in differentiated neuroblastoma cells induced by chromosome 1 transfer, MYCN knockdown, and 9-cis retinoic acid (9cRA). Furthermore, stable expression of transfected STMN4 or ROBO2 induced differentiation in IMR-32 cells. STMN4 and ROBO2 expression also increased in other 9cRA-induced differentiated neuroblastoma cell lines. Of clinical importance is that neuroblastoma patients with higher tumour mRNA expression of STMN4 and ROBO2 had better progression-free survival. This study highlights the importance of STMN4 and ROBO2 during neuroblastoma differentiation.
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