Alveolar soft-part sarcoma of the extremity: a case report.

Alveolar soft-part sarcoma (ASPS) is a rare form of soft tissue sarcoma and is most often seen in adolescents and young adults. Surgical excision of the primary tumor and pulmonary metastases has resulted in prolonged survival in some patients while the benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy has been disputed. An 11- year-old boy with ASPS which presented with a markedly vascular tumor in the left thigh, and multiple bilateral pulmonary metastases 8 months after diagnosis is described. The patient has remained disease-free for over 5 years since the initial diagnosis.

Use of amifostine in the treatment of recurrent solid tumours in children.

AIM: Preclinical and clinical evaluation of amifostine (AMI) administration in conjunction with systemic chemotherapy supports its role as a cytoprotective agent of normal tissues without loss of impairing the antitumour effectiveness of chemotherapeutic agents. Since only a limited number of clinical studies has been performed using AMI in paediatric pts with malignancies we investigated the protective effect of AMI against carboplatin-induced myelotoxicity and nephrotoxicity in a paediatric group of patients. MATERIAL AND RESULTS: AMI was administered in 18/28 paediatric patients with reccurent solid tumours along with ICE (ifosfamide, carboplatin, etoposide) chemotherapy. A significant (p<0.05) decrease in GFR was observed in the control group whereas it was maintained at pre-treatment levels in the AMI-treated group. Leukopenia and neutropenia were significantly (p<0.05) less in AMI-group. No protective effect of AMI was shown concerning thrombocytopenia. CONCLUSIONS: AMI was generally well tolerated at the dose of 740 mg/m2. Side effects including nausea, vomiting, hypotension, flushing and rigors were moderate and reversible and the interruption of infusion was never required.