suggest that elevated LDH and CK levels in RMS reflect a dismal prognosis, and the levels of LDH and CK may be used as a tumor marker.We reviewed the literature and 22 cases of RMS at the National Kyushu Cancer Center ). To our knowledge, these values have not been elevated in patients with localized RMS (i.e. groups 1, 2, and 3) [3,5,7]. Besides histology and primary sites [8], many prognostic markers of RMS, such as desmin [9], MYCN [10,11], CK isoenzyme [12], and CD44 [13] have been reported. Since it is much easier and less expensive to measure the levels of LDH and CK than other reported markers, these could be useful for suggesting the presence of systemic metastasis.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTSWe are thankful to Drs. Takao Konomoto, Hiroshi Kuroda, Yoshihiro Horii, and Tohru Sugimoto for their useful comments on this manuscript.