This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a colleague Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Save to my personal folders Download to citation manager Rights & Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Smith, L. M. Articles by Donaldson, S. S. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Smith, L. M. Articles by Donaldson, S. S. Social Bookmarking                            What's this?

Which Patients With Microscopic Disease and Rhabdomyosarcoma Experience Relapse After Therapy? A Report From the Soft Tissue Sarcoma Committee of the Children’s Oncology Group

From the Primary Children’s Medical Center, Salt Lake City, UT; University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE; Columbus Children’s Hospital, Columbus; Barrett Clinical Cancer Center, Cincinnati, OH; Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN; Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD; University of Rochester, Rochester, NY; St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN; Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, CA; Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA; Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA; and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX.

Address reprint requests to Lynn M. Smith, MD, Children’s Oncology Group, PO Box 60012, Arcadia, CA 91066-6012.

PURPOSE: To identify which patients with rhabdomyosarcoma and microscopic residual disease (group II) are likely to not respond to therapy.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Six hundred ninety-five patients with group II tumors received chemotherapy and 90% received radiation therapy on Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study (IRS)-I to IRS-IV (1972 to 1997). Tumors were subgrouped depending on the presence of microscopic residual disease only (subgroup IIa), resected positive regional lymph nodes, (subgroup IIb), or microscopic residual disease and resected positive regional lymph nodes (subgroup IIc).

RESULTS: Overall, the 5-year failure-free survival rate (FFSR) was 73%, and patients with embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma treated on IRS-IV fared especially well (5-year FFSR, 93%; n = 90). Five-year FFSRs differed significantly by subgroup (IIa, 75% and n = 506; IIb, 74% and n = 101; IIc, 58% and n = 88; P = .0037) and treatment (IRS-I, 68%; IRS-II, 67%; IRS-III, 75%; IRS-IV, 87%; P < .001). Multivariate analysis revealed positive associations between primary site (favorable), histology (embryonal), subgroup IIa or IIb, treatment (IRS-III/IV), and better FFSRs. Patterns of treatment failure revealed local failure to be 8%, regional failure, 4%, and distant failure, 14%. The relapse pattern noted over the course of IRS-I to IRS-IV shows a decrease in the systemic relapse rates, particularly for patients with embryonal histology, suggesting that improvement in FFSRs is primarily a result of improved chemotherapy.

CONCLUSION: Group II rhabdomyosarcoma has an excellent prognosis with contemporary therapy as used in IRS-III/IV, and those less likely to respond can be identified using prognostic factors: histology, subgroup, and primary site. Patients with embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma are generally cured, although patients with alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma or undifferentiated sarcoma, particularly subgroup IIc at unfavorable sites, continue to need better therapy.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				F. Diomedi-Camassei, H. P. McDowell, M. A. De Ioris, S. Uccini, P. Altavista, G. Raschella, R. Vitali, O. Mannarino, L. De Sio, D. A. Cozzi, et al. Clinical Significance of CXC Chemokine Receptor-4 and c-Met in Childhood Rhabdomyosarcoma Clin. Cancer Res., July 1, 2008; 14(13): 4119 - 4127. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. Schuck, A. C. Mattke, B. Schmidt, D. S. Kunz, D. Harms, R. Knietig, J. Treuner, and E. Koscielniak Group II Rhabdomyosarcoma and Rhabdomyosarcomalike Tumors: Is Radiotherapy Necessary? J. Clin. Oncol., January 1, 2004; 22(1): 143 - 149. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				K. Aflatoon, A. J. Aboulafia, E. F. McCarthy Jr, F. J. Frassica, and A. M. Levine Pediatric Soft-Tissue Tumors J. Am. Acad. Ortho. Surg., September 1, 2003; 11(5): 332 - 343. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]