Orbital rhabdomyosarcomas and related tumors in childhood: Relationship of morphology to prognosis - An Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study

Children and adolescents who develop rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) and related sarcomas in the orbit and treated on Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma protocols have had an extremely high cure rate. This study evaluates the possible relationship between their tumor morphologic subtypes and this high cure rate. The histology of tumors was re-reviewed from 229 of the 264 patients with tumors of the orbit, conjunctiva, and eyelids treated on Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Studies (IRS) I, II, III, and IV pilot protocols, and followed through July, 1992. Immunohistochemistry was applied in selected cases. Clinical correlations were done on all 264 cases including both the re-reviewed cases and those reviewed only by the IRS Pathology committee. The 5-year survival rate of 24 children with alveolar RMS was 74% (p < .001). All five infants diagnosed to have an alveolar RMS died before the age of one. Two hundred and twenty-one patients (84%) had embryonal RMS. About three- fourths of the re-reviewed embryonal RMS tumors showed only minimal rhabdomyoblastic differentiation. Thirty-one had a spindle cell RMS, two were anaplasmic variants. The 5-year survival rate for patients with embryonal RMS subtypes combined was 94%, and 97% for the 144 patients with poorly differentiated embryonal RMS. In contrast, 190 of 432 IRS II patients treated for poorly differentiated embryonal RMS located in extraocular sites had a 66% survival estimate.