blastoma

thumb|Cytology of a precursor (blast) cell, with features often seen even after partial differentiation into any of the more specific cell types. Wright's stain. A blastoma is a type of cancer, more common in children, that is caused by malignancies in precursor cells, often called blasts. Examples are nephroblastoma, medulloblastoma, and retinoblastoma. The suffix -blastoma is used to imply a tumor of primitive, incompletely differentiated (or precursor) cells, e.g., chondroblastoma is composed of cells resembling the precursor of chondrocytes.

==Molecular biology and treatment== Many types of blastoma have been linked to a mutation in tumor suppressor genes. For example, pleuropulmonary blastomas have been linked to a coding mutation for p53. However, the mutation which allows proliferation of incompletely differentiated cells can vary from patient to patient and can alter the prognosis.