Embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma of bladder and prostate: nuclear DNA patterns studied by flow cytometry.

Nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid ploidy studies with paraffin-embedded archival tumor specimens were performed by flow cytometry on extracted nuclei from 13 embryonal rhabdomyosarcomas of the bladder and prostate. Preparation of embedded tissue specimens into single dissociated nuclei was by the Hedley technique and they were stained with propidium iodide according to the Vindeløv method. Before the era of chemotherapy, 6 of 7 patients died of disease at a median of 5.5 months post-treatment. All 6 deaths occurred in patients with deoxyribonucleic acid aneuploid patterns that were stage II or greater. The 1 survivor had a deoxyribonucleic acid aneuploid pattern and stage I disease and is alive at 12 years of followup. Since 1971, 6 patients were treated with primary polychemotherapy and surgery. All 6 patients are alive without evidence of disease at a mean followup of 75 months (range 12 to 180 months). All 6 patients had deoxyribonucleic acid aneuploid tumors. One patient was stage I and 5 patients were stage III. Thus, all patients with pediatric embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma of the bladder and prostate had deoxyribonucleic acid aneuploid tumors. These patients responded well to treatment with the combination of chemotherapy and surgery.