Comparing Adult and Pediatric Rhabdomyosarcoma in the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program, 1973 to 2005: An Analysis of 2,600 Patients

Abstract

Adults reported to have rhabdomyosarcoma had worse survival than children with similar tumors. Predictors of poor outcome in children were valid in adults except for alveolar histology and unfavorable tumor site.

Head and Neck Rhabdomyosarcoma: Clinical and Pathologic Characterization of Seven Cases

“…About 30% of pediatric RMS occurs in the head and neck [1]. In contrast, RMS is relatively rare in adults and occurs more frequently in the extremities and very infrequently in the head and neck region [2]. Due to the rarity of head and neck RMS in adults, most narratives of this disease have been published only as case reports [3][4][5][6][7].…”

Rhabdomyosarcoma discovered in the adrenal region of an elderly hypertensive patient

“…In addition, adult cases with rhabdomyosarcoma had significantly worse outcome than children (5-year survival rates, 27 and 61%, respectively). 8 Multivariate analysis showed that aged, pleomorphic and alveolar subtypes, unfavorable location, advanced disease stage, and loss of local control with surgery and/or radiation were significant predictors of worse survival.…”

Rhabdomyosarcoma: Current Challenges and Their Implications for Developing Therapies

“…There are approximately 350 new diagnoses of childhood RMS in the United States per year. The annual RMS incidence in adults is not entirely clear, but data from the public access Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results database (Sultan et al 2009) show that 40% of all RMS tumors are diagnosed in adults .20 years of age.…”

“…RMS tumors can occur at any age, but most diagnoses are made in children and adolescents with an annual RMS incidence of 4.3 cases per one million people younger than 20 years of age (Sultan et al 2009;Perez et al 2011). There are approximately 350 new diagnoses of childhood RMS in the United States per year.…”

“…The two main histological subtypes diagnosed in the pediatric population are alveolar and embryonal RMS, whereas tumors with pleomorphic and not otherwise specified (NOS) histology account for the majority of RMS diagnosed in individuals .18 years of age (Parham 2001;Sultan et al 2009;Hawkins et al 2013). Chromosomal translocations resulting in fusion of the DNA-binding domain of the PAX3 or PAX7 genes to the transactivation domain of the FOXO1 gene ( previously known as FKHR) have been detected in approximately 55% (PAX3-FOXO1) and 20% (PAX7-FOXO1) of alveolar histology RMS (Sorensen et al 2002).…”