Rhabdomyosarcoma is an uncommon tumor. Until recently many cases were not diagnosed as such, histopathologically, because no cross striations in the cells were evident. Stout,1 in 1946, described the various appearances of tumors arising from skeletal muscles and made it possible to classify these tumors, despite the lack of demonstrable cross striations.
Rhabdomyosarcoma, in contrast to other sarcomas, tends to disseminate via the lymphatics. In the later stages, however, spread occurs through the blood stream.
Histologically, the appearance often suggests that of an anaplastic carcinoma or that of a fibrosarcoma; the cells may be of many types—long, short, spindle cells, or ovoid cells with one or two nuclei. There may also be some giant cells (Nanavati2).
As far as treatment is concerned, surgery or surgery combined with radiotherapy has been used. However, the results are not encouraging. Delcourt and Dustin3 have mentioned the use of nitrogen mustards.
Report of Case