EMBRYONAL RHABDOMYOSARCOMA

Abstract

A 5 year survivor with no clinical evidence of disease is discussed, who presented in 1961 with a botryoid embryonal rhabdomyo-sarcoma of the nasopharynx. A combined chemo-radiotherapeutic radical approach was undertaken which has controlled the local disease. Six months later, combined therapy was undertaken for a solitary pulmonary metastasis. Early metastases are not widely disseminated in all cases, and the presence of a solitary pulmonary lesion should not necessarily preclude ablative local therapy. The plea for radical radiotherapy, 6-7,000 rads in 5 to 7 weeks, is stressed, if local persistence is to be eliminated. Since embryonal rhabodmyosarcoma can be controlled locally by radical radiotherapy, it is felt to be the treatment of choice in lesions which do not readily lend themselves to complete en bloc surgical extirpation. The treatments which employ chemotherapy (actinomycin D or vincristine) and radiotherapy, deserve further exploration, as do pre-planned preoperative radiotherapy-surgical combinations in sites more amenable to radical surgical attack.