Successful treatment of metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma with radiochemotherapy and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

We report a case of a 21-year-old man with alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma primarily in the right hand with lymph node, lung, bone and bone marrow metastases. Complete remission was achieved after intensive chemotherapy and radiotherapy of the primary and metastatic sites, followed by allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation with reduced-intensity conditioning from a single HLA-DR locus-mismatched mother. The patient remained relapse-free for 41 months after the diagnosis. Considering that the conventional treatment for rhabdomyosarcoma with multiple risk factors (old age, bone or bone marrow involvement, unfavorable primary sites and ≥3 metastases) is associated with a poor prognosis (5% probability of a 3-year event-free survival), the graft-versus-tumor effect may have contributed to his sustained relapse-free survival. Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for rhabdomyosarcoma should be done by experienced clinical oncologists on properly designed controlled trials.