ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Otorinolaringologia 1998 December;48(4):157-60

Copyright © 2000 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Long term survival in rhabdomyosarcoma of head and neck. An analysis of 50 cases

Gupta A. K., Singhal S. K., Singh D. P.*, Panda N. K., Mann S. B. S., Sharma S. C.

From the Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery and * Radiotherapy Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research Chandigarh, India

Back­ground. The ­overall sur­vival ­rate for rhab­dom­yo­sar­coma (RMS) ­ranges ­from 20 to 70%. We ­want to ­share our expe­ri­ence in ­terms of sur­vival ­rates by ­offering dif­ferent ther­a­peutic modal­ities for ­cases of RMS ­Head and ­Neck.
­Methods. ­This is a pros­pec­tive ­study on 50 ­cases of RMS man­aged at the Post­grad­uate Insti­tute of Med­ical Edu­ca­tion and ­Research, Chan­di­garh, ­India. The sur­vival ­rates of all ­these ­cases are com­pared ­with dif­ferent treat­ment pro­to­cols. ­Middle ear and mas­toid was ­found to be the com­monest ­site and ­facial ­nerve involve­ment was ­more ­common.
­Results. Chem­o­therapy as a pri­mary ­modality ­revealed 27.28% 3 ­years sur­vival ­rates com­pared to chem­o­therapy and radio­chem­o­therapy+radio­therapy and sur­gery respec­tively ­giving 50% and 66.6% 3 ­year sur­vival ­rates respec­tively. The ­overall sur­vival ­rate was ­found to be 50%. The prog­nosis was ­found to be ­poorer in ­cases ­with ­lymph ­node metas­tasis (14%) and ­cases ­with ­unusual his­to­log­ical fea­tures (16%).
Con­clu­sions. Com­bined ­modality treat­ment ­using chem­o­therapy, ­local radi­a­tion ­therapy and sur­gery ­gives excel­lent ­results.