Rhabdomyosarcoma in children and adolescents. A review

Children and adolescents with RMS presently have an overall survival of 60 to 65 per cent when treated with multimodality therapy. Those individuals with favorable histologic features and either complete resection or microscopic residual have an 80 to 85 per cent probability of long-term survival. These accomplishments by the IRS committee of the Children's Cancer Study Group and the Pediatric Oncology Group have been extended to thousands of patients. Other investigators in the United States, Great Britain, and Europe, working both in collaboration and independently of the IRS, have been responsible for innovative therapies, which should further reduce the mortality and morbidity of this common soft tissue sarcoma. Increasing emphasis is being placed on the tumor biology, molecular genetics, and epidemiology of RMS, as well as on the quality of life in survivors. At the fifteenth anniversary of its inception, the IRS has fulfilled the expectations of its founders as a model for intergroup collaborative research. Credit for these accomplishments can only go to the hundreds of investigators and their patients who have participated in these studies.