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Surgery
Source: Childhood Rhabdomyosarcoma Treatment (PDQ®)–Patient Version, National Cancer Institute.
Source updated: April 8, 2022 · Captured 2026-09-09.
Selected source text with whitespace normalised. This Triangle page is not an NCI PDQ summary. Independent clinical review is pending.
Context: Treatment Option Overview / Three types of standard treatment are used:
Surgery (removing the cancer in an operation) is used to treat childhood rhabdomyosarcoma. A type of surgery called wide local excision is often done. A wide local excision is the removal of tumor and some of the tissue around it, including the lymph nodes. A second surgery may be needed to remove all the cancer. Whether surgery is done and the type of surgery done depends on the following:
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Where in the body the tumor started.
The effect the surgery will have on the way the child will look.
The effect the surgery will have on the child's important body functions.
How the tumor responded to chemotherapy or radiation therapy that may have been given first.
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In most children with rhabdomyosarcoma, it is not possible to remove all of the tumor by surgery.
Rhabdomyosarcoma can form in many different places in the body and the surgery will be different for each site. Surgery to treat rhabdomyosarcoma of the eye or genital areas is usually a biopsy. Chemotherapy, and sometimes radiation therapy, may be given before surgery to shrink large tumors.
After the doctor removes all the cancer that can be seen at the time of the surgery, patients will be given chemotherapy after surgery to kill any cancer cells that are left. Radiation therapy may also be given. Treatment given after the surgery, to lower the risk that the cancer will come back, is called adjuvant therapy.
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Preserved source evidence · Independent clinical review pending · Not medical advice