Treatment of rhabdomyosarcoma in children and adolescent from four low health expenditures average rates countries

Abstract

BackgroundSurvival of children with cancer in Eastern and Central Europe is 10–20% lower than in high income European countries. We evaluated outcome of children and adolescents with rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) in Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia and in Romania.Patients and methodsWe retrospectively analysed event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) for all patients treated in Slovenia and Croatia. Slovakia included patients from two centers, representing half of expected cases. Romania included patients from single institution, representing only 10% of expected patients. Joint database for analysis was established.ResultsOne hundred seventy-eight children and adolescent with RMS diagnosed from January 2000 to December 2015 were included. Mean patient age at diagnosis was 7.7 years, one third was older than 10 years. Twenty-five percent had alveolar histology and 72% unfavorable location. Higher than expected proportion of patients had nodal involvement (24%) or metastatic disease (27%). All patients received systemic chemotherapy, 57% had radiotherapy and 63% surgery as local control. Kaplan- Meier estimates for 5-year EFS and OS were 50.7% and 59.6%, respectively. Five-year OS for patients with localised disease was 72% compared to 24% for metastatic disease.ConclusionsChildren with RMS treated in Eastern and Central Europe have inferior outcome compared to their counterparts treated in high income European countries. Active participation of low health expenditures average rates (LHEAR) countries in international clinical trials may improve outcome of paediatric oncology patients.

Trends in population-based cancer survival in Slovenia

“…In Slovenia, all children suspected of having cancer undergo a diagnostic workup and treatment in a single national paediatric centre, which positively affects their survival along with developments in diagnostics and treatment. 19,20 Similarly, as in adults, boys achieve slightly lower survivals than girls, but the gap between the sexes has been narrowing over time (Table 2). Five-year net survival was similar in children and in adolescents in all observed periods (Figure 2, Table 2).…”

“…In Slovenia, all children suspected of having cancer undergo a diagnostic workup and treatment in a single national paediatric centre, which positively affects their survival along with developments in diagnostics and treatment. 19 , 20 …”

Survival Outcomes of Patients with Head and Neck Sarcomas Submitted to Multimodal Treatment at a Single Cancer Center: A Retrospective Study

“…Furthermore, in our study, most patients (64.1%) were aged between 19 and 60 years, which is like reported in another study conducted by Frankart et al (10), who describes the peak age incidence of RMS is between 3 and 5 years in 70% of these patients. Currently, the treatment is based on a multimodal approach that includes surgical removal followed by other adjuvant therapies (11).…”