Rhabdomyosarcoma Treatment
The treatment of rhabdomyosarcoma is determined by two factors:
- Tumor stage, tumor stage is determined by its location, size and extent of spread (metastasized) to lymph nodes or distant organs.
- Group of tumors: establishing a time a surgeon has removed as much tumor as possible. Sometimes you need a second surgery to remove all traces of cancer that remains after the first surgery. In group 1 tumors, the cancer has completely surgically removed. In group 2 tumors, all visible cancer was removed surgically, but still some microscopic cancer cells. In group 3 tumors, surgery could not remove all visible cancer, but cancer has not spread. In group 4 tumors, the cancer has spread when diagnosed.
Except in the case of tumors located in the eye or urinary tract, the first step in the treatment of rhabdomyosarcoma is surgery. Surgery is followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In cases of larger tumors, chemotherapy and radiotherapy were performed before surgery to shrink the tumor so that surgery is less disfiguring.
Surgery may be performed after chemotherapy if there are trace amounts of tumor tissue or abnormalities that are still visualized on radiographs.
In the eye, rhabdomyosarcoma is usually treated with radiotherapy and chemotherapy without surgery. In the case of rhabdomyosarcoma in the bladder or in the female genital tract, chemotherapy and radiotherapy could be done to shrink the tumor before surgery. This allows the surgeon to preserve as much of body as possible.