Embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma of the head and neck in children and adolescents

ARCOMA botryoides in female infants and its analogue, the sarcoma developing in the vicinity of the bladder base and prostate in male infants, are well known to pathologists and clinicians alike.T h e pronounced tendency toward the appearance of embryonal striated muscle in these tumors has led to their designation as embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma, although the occurrence of other mesenchymal elements may justify the terms "mixed mesenchymal tumor" or "niesenchymoma."T h e former of these is probably not to be preferred because of its more recent employment to designate the complex endometrial tumors of the uterus in the adult, tumors different histologically, histogenetically, and behavioristicall y.T h e fact that a similar group of tumors (characteristically containing a large embryonal striated-muscle constituent) occurs in the head-and-neck area in early infancy and up through adolescence appears to be less well known, to judge by the confusion in the diagnoses made on the tumors received by the Children's Tumor Registry.These lesions are confused with neuroblastonia and even with lymphosarcoma.T h e purpose of this paper is to call attention once more to the existence of this group of embryonal rhabdomyosarcomas arising for the most part in the orbital, facial, and cervical musculature.These tumors, unfortunately, are rarely recognized early in their clinical course, often misdiagnosed pathologically, for the most part lethal in outcome yet not