title: Three-year relapse-free survival rates in childhood rhabdomyosarcoma of the head and neck: report from the Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study.
abstract: In 202 patients with rhabdomyosarcoma of the head and neck who registered in the first Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study, the primary lesions arose about the eye and orbit in 26%, in parameningeal sites in 46%, and in other head and neck areas in 28%. Histopathologically, 78% were embryonal-botryoid, 9% alveolar, 10% undifferentiated, and 3% extraosseous Ewing's types. Actual three-year relapse-free survival rates were calculated from data on 103 of these patients who were free of distant metastases at diagnosis and in whom follow-up had been completed for a three-year period. The actual relapse-free survival rates were 91% (21/23) for those with eye/orbit primaries, 46% (20/44) for those with parameningeal primaries, and 75% (27/36) for those with other head and neck sites affected. Among those with no clinical evidence of tumor activity at two years, 8% (6/75) had subsequent relapses.
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D005134:Eye Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012208:Rhabdomyosarcoma / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*