# MIBG Curie and SIOPEN scores

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/curie-siopen-score/  
OnCo record `curie-siopen-score` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Neuroblastoma soaks up MIBG, a radioactive cousin of noradrenaline; the Curie and SIOPEN scores count how many body regions still light up on the scan, and a score that has not fallen enough after the first rounds of chemotherapy marks a child who is unlikely to be cured with the standard plan.

## Summary

What is measured: the extent of MIBG-avid disease on a whole-body scan. How: iodine-123 MIBG planar and SPECT imaging (with a bone scan or FDG PET for the roughly 10 percent of tumours that do not take up MIBG); the Curie score grades nine skeletal segments and one soft-tissue site from 0 to 3 (maximum 30) and the SIOPEN score grades twelve skeletal segments from 0 to 6 (maximum 72). What a result changes: at diagnosis it stages metastatic disease and establishes MIBG avidity for later iodine-131 MIBG therapy; after induction, a Curie score above 2 (COG A3973) or a SIOPEN score above 3 predicts worse event-free survival in high-risk disease and is used to stratify and to select patients for intensified or experimental arms, such as adding iodine-131 MIBG in COG ANBL1531; the International Neuroblastoma Response Criteria of 2017 use MIBG to score skeletal response. Fluorine-18 MFBG PET, a same-day tracer with higher resolution, is replacing MIBG in trials. Where it matters: neuroblastoma and high-risk neuroblastoma.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-17
- Also known as: Curie score; SIOPEN score; MIBG score; MIBG avidity; MIBG-avid; MIBG-non-avid; semi-quantitative MIBG scoring; 123I-MIBG scan; MIBG scintigraphy; 18F-MFBG PET; MFBG PET

## Connected records

- technologies: [FDG PET](https://onco.cc/technologies/fdg-pet/), [MIBG imaging and 131I-MIBG therapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/mibg-theranostics/)
- drugs: [131I-MIBG (iobenguane I-131) therapy](https://onco.cc/drugs/i131-mibg/), [Dinutuximab (ch14.18) / dinutuximab beta](https://onco.cc/drugs/dinutuximab/)
- terms: [INRG staging and risk groups](https://onco.cc/terms/inrg-staging/), [Urinary catecholamine metabolites (VMA and HVA)](https://onco.cc/terms/urinary-catecholamines/)
- cancers: [High-risk neuroblastoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/neuroblastoma-high-risk/), [Neuroblastoma (paediatric)](https://onco.cc/cancers/neuroblastoma/)

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