Orbital rhabdomyosarcoma: treatment or overtreatment

In 1972, the Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study standardized the classification and treatment of orbital rhabdomyosarcoma. It established chemotherapy with external beam radiotherapy as the standard of treatment, yet there was no comparison to treatment with external beam radiotherapy alone. We retrospectively examined the charts of patients with orbital rhabdomyosarcoma treated solely with external beam radiotherapy for the following data: age at diagnosis, gender, tumor recurrence, and tumor-related mortality. We followed 24 patients (mean follow-up 7.9 years) treated with external beam radiotherapy alone. The average age at diagnosis was 5.5 years; there were 15 males and 9 females. Three patients (12.5%) suffered tumor recurrence and there was one (4.2%) tumor-related death. When compared to the Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study, results suggest that chemotherapy with external beam radiotherapy may offer no advantage to external beam radiotherapy alone for the treatment of orbital rhabdomyosarcoma.