Successful treatment of a child with a primary intracranial rhabdomyosarcoma with chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Primary rhabdomyosarcoma of the central nervous system (CNS) is rare in both adults and children (Taratuto et al. (1985) Acta Neuropathol (Berl) 66(2):98-104). The outcome in the majority of cases is poor, and many cases are associated with early mortality (Celli et al. (1998) J Neurooncol 36(3):259-267). There are very few cases reported in the literature of survival beyond 2 years after diagnosis. We report a case of primary intracranial embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma in a 5-year-old girl who was treated successfully with local radiation therapy (RT) and a combination of two different chemotherapeutic regimens. The patient is clinically well 26 months after diagnosis, with no definitive evidence of residual disease.