Managing peritoneal involvement in children and young people with rhabdomyosarcoma: A single-center experience from the United Kingdom.

Abstract

We describe our experience in managing nine children and adolescents with rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) and peritoneal involvement. The radiological pattern of peritoneal involvement was diverse from only ascites to solid peritoneal mass/omental caking. Treatment included systemic chemotherapy in all, surgery in three, and radiotherapy in eight. Two patients with presumed nonmalignant ascites, no solid peritoneal metastasis, nonalveolar histology, near-complete resection of residual disease, and radiotherapy survived long term. One patient has just completed treatment, and the remaining six relapsed/progressed at the time of reporting. Five of six patients died after a median of 5 (3-7) months from relapse despite second-line chemotherapy.