Cranial irradiation of children with soft-tissue sarcomas arising in parameningeal sites

Soft-tissue sarcomas arising in parameningeal sites are characterized by the potential of a direct meningeal invasion. In order to improve survival rates, we started a treatment program which included whole cranial irradiation with a dose of 24-30 Gy and primary tumor irradiation with 55-65 Gy, and polychemotherapy with vincristine, actinomycin D and cyclophosphamide, and, in some cases, adriamycin. Results in a series of 9 children treated by this program were compared with a historical group of 12 children without cranial irradiation. In the group with extended irradiation to brain, survival was 40%, stabilized at the 13th month of treatment, and 38.1%, respectively, if orbitary tumors were excluded. In the historical group these values were only 20.83% and 15.67%, respectively. The differences were statistically significant.