Treatment outcome of pediatric rhabdomyosarcoma at national cancer institute, Egypt

Abstract

Background Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is the most common soft tissue sarcoma in infants and children. It is the third most common solid tumor in children after neuroblastoma and Wilms tumor, making up 10–15% of all solid pediatric tumors. At National Cancer Institute (NCI), Egypt, soft tissue sarcomas represent 3.75% of total malignancies and 27.6% of these occur in the pediatric group. RMS is the most common type. Aim and objectives This work aims to study the treatment outcome, overall survival (OS), and event free survival (EFS) of pediatric RMS patients diagnosed and treated at NCI. Patients and methods This is a retrospective study that included 54 pediatric patients, newly diagnosed with RMS who were treated at the pediatric oncology department, NCI, Cairo University, Egypt during the period from January 2012 to December 2016. Results Totally 54 pediatric patients with RMS with ages ranging from 7 months to 17 years (median age 5 years) were studied. The median follow-up period ranged with a minimum 1 year for the last patient. In this study, we classify our patients into low, intermediate, and high-risk groups according to IRS and we found that 11 (20.4%) patients were eligible for the low-risk group, 27 (50%) patients were eligible for the intermediate risk group and 16 (29.6%) patients were eligible for the high-risk group. The 2-year OS for low-risk group was 90.9%, it was 52.1% for intermediate-risk group, while it was 43.8% for high-risk group (P=0.02). The 2-year EFS for low-risk group was 63.6%, it was 41.2% for intermediate-risk group, while it was 31.3% for high-risk group (P=0.203). Conclusion RMS requires combined-modality therapy. Late presentation and advanced local disease compromise treatment options and decrease OS and EFS.