Rhabdomyosarcoma in infants under one year of age: Experience of the institut Gustave-Roussy

✍ Scribed by Salloum, Emile ;Flamant, Françoise ;Rey, Annie ;Caillaud, Jean M. ;Friedman, Samuel ;Valteau, Dominique ;Lemerle, Jean

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 339 KB
• Volume: 17
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0098-1532
• DOI: 10.1002/mpo.2950170513

✦ Synopsis

forty-three infants under 1 year of age (median 4 months) with rhabdomyosarcorna (RMS), representing 11% of all childhood RMS seen over the same period, were treated and followed between 1955 and 1984 at our institute. Compared to the 340 older children (1-16 years of age), there were no significant differences in rnale/female ratio, primary site, or clinical stage, but there was a higher frequency of alveolar and poorly differentiated histologic subtypes in infants aged under 1 year ( P = 0.05 and P * : 0.001, respectively) and increased frequency of botryoid RMS in older children ( P < 0.02). Al-though children older than l year of age had a significantly higher complete remission rate (83% vs. 51%, P < 0.001), their 5 year overall survival (43%) was no different from that of infants under 1 year of age (35%). In the older group there was no survival difference between alveolar (38%) and nonalveolar (44%) histologic subtypes, but in infants younger than 1 year, alveolar subtype had a significantly poorer prognosis (13% vs. 47%, P = 0.01). Management of patients at this age group is difficult and major advances are needed to increase survival rates with a minimum of morbidity.