Rhabdomyosarcoma of the head and neck in pediatric patients: a systematic review.

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a soft tissue malignant tumor of mesenchymal cell origin, which usually shows variable differentiation of muscle cells. It is the most common solid sarcoma in children. The most usual site of occurrence are the head and neck regions. RMS presents a variety of histologic features, and so differential diagnosis with other small round cell tumors is needed. Hence, it has been very useful to the field to undertake additional immunohistochemical studies to determine the diagnosis and, on occasions, to assign subtype tumors. A systematic review of three databases (Medline, Biological Science Collection and Health & Medical Collection) was carried out with the purpose of …