MadSci Network: Medicine
Query:

Re: What is the general background of Rhabdomyosarcoma?

Date: Wed Feb 21 13:48:59 2001
Posted By: Robert Schier, M.D., Radiology, Pacific Imaging Consultants
Area of science: Medicine
ID: 980388539.Me
Message:

Hello David.

What is a rhabdomyosarcoma? You know a lot of the answer already, since you wrote that it is a "soft tissue tumor" and is usually found "in children". Yes. Rhabdomyosarcoma is in fact the most common soft tissue childhood tumor. It can occur nearly anywhere except in the brain and is most common in the head and neck region and in the pelvis. Sometimes babies are born with it.

It is a very aggressive tumor and tends to spread both into the surrounding tissues and to distant parts of the body through the blood stream and lymphatic system. It affects boys and girls with the same frequency.

How is it treated? It is treated in much the same way that other cancers are treated. The three main methods are surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Sometimes all three are used, depending on the type of cancer, its size and how far it has spread. (A fourth way of treating some cancers is immunotherapy. This involves stimulating the body's own immune system to attack the tumor. This type of treatment is still in the early stages of development.)

Who discovered rhabdomyosarcoma? No one person did. The name "rhabdomyosarcoma" describes the organ or cell from which the tumor origninated. In this case, the tumor arises from cells of the striated muscles. These are the voluntary muscles, such as the biceps and bladder muscles. Under a microscope these muscle cells have a striped -- or striated -- appearance. The word rhabdo-myo-sarcoma is put together from the Greek words "rhabdo" (striped), "mys" (muscle) and "sarcoma" (soft tissue tumor). I said that no one person discovered it because the tumor has been around as long as people have, is not subtle or hard to notice, and has been seen by people for thousands of years. Exactly who finally named it "rhabdomyosarcoma" is not known, but it was probably a scientist or group of scientists in the 1700's or 1800's who were studying tumors with microscopes.

Some diseases do have a discoverer, in a sense. A certain disease of the nervous system which has undoubtedly afflicted people for as long as there have been people was first described in detail -- and the results published -- in the 1800's by an English physician, Dr. James Parkinson. He was then given the "honor" of having the disease named after him: Parkinson's Disease.

For more information about rhabdomyosarcoma and other medical issues, check the following websites:

Mayo Clinic -- www.mayo.edu Virtual Children's Hospital -- www.vch.vh.org National Institutes of Health -- www.nih.gov/health/


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