Bone and Soft Tissue Oncology Program

Rhabdomyosarcoma

Treatment

There are three primary treatments for patients with childhood rhabdomyosarcoma:

surgery
radiation therapy
chemotherapy

Bone marrow transplantation is being studied in clinical trials.

Surgery

Surgery is a common treatment for rhabdomyosarcoma. Depending on where the cancer is, the child's doctor will take out as much of the cancer as possible, along with some of the normal tissue around it. If the cancer is in a place where it cannot be removed, surgery may be limited to taking out only a small piece of the cancer (biopsy). Surgery is usually followed by chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Side effects of surgery: The side effects of surgery depend on the location of the tumor and the type of operation, among other factors. Although patients are often uncomfortable during the first few days after surgery, this pain can usually be controlled with medicine. The recovery period after an operation varies from patient to patient.

Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy uses high-energy x-rays to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Radiation may come from a machine outside the body (external radiation therapy) or from putting materials that produce radiation (radioisotopes) through thin plastic tubes in the area where the cancer cells are found (internal radiation therapy). Clinical trials are testing radiation given in several small doses per day (hyperfractionated radiation therapy).

Side effects of radiation: The most common side effects of radiation therapy are tiredness, skin reactions in the treated areas (such as a rash or redness), and loss of appetite. Radiation therapy may also cause a decrease in the number of white blood cells that help protect the body against infection. Most of these side effects can be treated or controlled and in most cases they are not permanent.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells. Chemotherapy may be taken by mouth in the form of a pill, or it may be put into the body by a needle in a vein or muscle. Chemotherapy is called a systemic treatment because the drugs enter the bloodstream, travel through the body, and can kill cancer cells throughout the body.

Side effects of chemotherapy: Chemotherapy drugs generally fight rapidly dividing cells in the body. Cells that divide rapidly include both the targeted cancer cells and healthy cells in the blood, digestive tract, and hair follicles. Depending on which anticancer drugs a patient receives, he or she may experience symptoms when healthy cells are damaged along with the cancer cells. If healthy blood cells are destroyed by chemotherapy, the patient may be more susceptible to infections, bruising or bleeding, and fatigue. When cells in the hair roots or digestive tract are affected by anticancer drugs, the patient may have hair loss, nausea, vomiting, or mouth sores. Not all chemotherapy patients develop all of these side effects, and the symptoms usually go away during the recovery period or after the treatments are done. Doctors can prescribe medicines and other treatments to control most of the symptoms.

Bone Marrow Transplantation

Bone marrow transplantation is being studied for the treatment of recurrent rhabdomyosarcoma. Sometimes rhabdomyosarcoma becomes resistant to treatment with standard doses of radiation therapy or chemotherapy. Very high doses of chemotherapy may then be used to treat the cancer. Because the high doses of chemotherapy can destroy the bone marrow, marrow is taken from the patient's bones before treatment. The marrow is then frozen and high-dose chemotherapy with or without radiation therapy is given to treat the cancer. The marrow that was taken out is then thawed and given back through a needle in a vein to replace the marrow that was destroyed. This type of transplant, in which the patient's own bone marrow is used, is called an autologous transplant.

This page was last updated on: March 5, 2008.