Other Therapeutic Approaches

High-dose chemotherapy with autologous and allogeneic stem cell rescue has been evaluated in a limited number of patients with rhabdomyosarcoma.[206-208] The use of this modality has failed to improve the outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed or recurrent rhabdomyosarcoma.[208]

The National Cancer Institute's (NCI) intramural Pediatric Oncology Branch conducted a pilot study of cytoreductive treatment followed by consolidative immunotherapy incorporating T-cell reconstitution, plus a dendritic-cell and tumor-peptide vaccine that was given with minimal toxicity to patients with translocation-positive metastatic or recurrent Ewing sarcoma (n = 37) and alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (n = 15). Ten patients with alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma had improved survival, compared with five patients who did not receive immunotherapy.[209][Level of evidence C1]