Patients with completely resected nongenitourinary low-risk embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma are candidates for reduced duration low-intensity chemotherapy

Bisogno G, Fuchs J, Dasgupta R, Ferrari A, Haduong JH, Rogers T, Walterhouse DO, Coppadoro B, Xue W, Vokuhl C, Hawkins DS, Seitz G, Merks JHM, Sparber-Sauer M, Venkatramani R. Patients with completely resected nongenitourinary low-risk embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma are candidates for reduced duration low-intensity chemotherapy. Cancer. 2022 Dec 1;128(23):4150-4156. doi: 10.1002/cncr.34497. Epub 2022 Oct 17. PubMed PMID: 36250420; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC10548874.

The survival of patients with localized embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) completely resected at diagnosis is greater than 90%. Most patients have paratesticular, uterine, or vaginal RMS, limiting specific analyses of RMS localized in other anatomic regions. This international study was conducted to define the outcome for completely resected embryonal RMS at sites other than paratesticular, uterine, or vaginal primary sites. A total of 113 patients aged 0–18 years were identified who were enrolled from January 1995 to December 2016 in Children’s Oncology Group (COG) (64 patients) and European protocols (49). Genitourinary nonbladder and prostate RMS were excluded. The recommended chemotherapy was vincristine and actinomycin-D (VA) for 24 weeks or ifosfamide plus VA in the European protocols and VA for 48 weeks or VA plus cyclophosphamide in the COG protocols.