and neck in children

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is the most frequent soft tissue sarcoma in children. It is localized in the head and neck region in 40 % of cases. Treat-ment of RMS is complex, including multi-drug chemotherapy, radiother-apy and surgery. The progress that has been accomplished in oncology in recent decades significantly im-proved outcomes. The 5-year survival rate raised from 25 % in 1970 to 73% in 2001, according to IRS-IV data. The outcome is influenced by primary tu-mor localization, clinical staging, his-tological tumor type and age at the moment of diagnosis. The relatively rare incidence of these tumors re-sulted in difficulties in creating more standardized therapeutic protocols. Comparison of outcomes in large patients groups led to an increase in the number of patients with complete remission. Although survival rates of RMS patients have improved, search-ing for new therapeutic modalities and substances is still essential to im-prove outcomes in cases of more ad-vanced stages and unfavorable tumor localizations. Key words: head and neck rhabdo-myosarcoma, sarcoma, surgery, radia-tion therapy, chemotherapy