Feryel Letaief Ksontini*, Dorra Tajina-Abdelmaksoud, Safia Yahiaoui, Azza Gabsi, Amina Mokrani and Amel Mezlini
Background: Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is the most common soft tissue tumor in childhood with a cure rate of 70% in localized disease. We aimed to study the prognostic factors of non-metastatic RMS in Tunisian paediatric patients.
Methods: We reviewed data of children aged <18 years, treated in the Salah Azaiez Institute for a localized RMS during 20 years. Prognostic factors were studied and survival data analysed.
Results: 75 patients were included. Mean follow up was 30 months. The 5-year OS and DFS were 50% and 26%, respectively. By univariate analysis, DFS was significantly correlated to chemotherapy, radiotherapy (RT) and post-surgical RT with p 0.02, 0.003 and 0.01, respectively. The surgery failed to be a significant factor. We didn`t find any factor with a significant relationship with DFS in multivariate analysis. By univariate analysis, 5-year OS was significantly and adversely influenced by 4 factors: tumour size>4 cm, non-alveolar RMS, positive regional nodes and para-meningeal location, with p: 0.050, 0.05, 0.04 and 0.04, respectively. RT and postsurgical RT were associated with a good prognosis in OS p=0.009 and 0.05, respectively. Age, histology, primary site and IRS group failed to be significant. By multivariate analysis, OS was strongly correlated to radiotherapy p=0.03, Odds Ratio (OR) 3.1, confidence interval (IC) 95% [1.05-9.3] and para-meningeal site p=0.04, (OR) 0.3, confidence interval (IC) 95% [0.1-0.9].
Conclusions: Compared to the literature, we noticed that the prognosis of our patients was worse so we should improve it by making the treatment more personalized and encouraging research.
PDFShare this article
Cancer Science & Therapy received 3968 citations as per Google Scholar report
