Quantitative diffusion-weighted MRI response assessment in rhabdomyosarcoma: an international retrospective study on behalf of the European paediatric Soft tissue sarcoma Study Group Imaging Committee.

Objective: To investigate the feasibility of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) as a predictive imaging marker after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with rhabdomyosarcoma.

Material And Methods: We performed a multicenter retrospective study including pediatric, adolescent and young adult patients with rhabdomyosarcoma, Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study group III/IV, treated according to the European paediatric Soft tissue sarcoma Study Group (EpSSG) RMS2005 or MTS2008 studies. DW-MRI was performed according to institutional protocols.

Ethnicity Strongly Influences Body Fat Distribution Determining Serum Adipokine Profile and Metabolic Derangement in Childhood Obesity.

Body fat content and distribution in childhood is influenced by sex and puberty, but interethnic differences in the percentage and distribution of body fat also exist. The abdominal visceral/subcutaneous fat ratio has been the main feature of body fat distribution found to associate with the serum adipokine profile and metabolic derangement in adulthood obesity. This has also been assumed for childhood obesity despite the known singularities of this disease in the pediatric age in comparison to adults.

Response Assessment in Paediatric Phase I Trials According to RECIST Guidelines: Survival Outcomes, Patterns of Progression and Relevance of Changes in Tumour Measurements.

Introduction: RECIST guidelines constitute the reference for radiological response assessment in most paediatric trials of anticancer agents. However, these criteria have not been validated in children. We evaluated the outcomes and patterns of progression of children/adolescents enrolled in phase I trials in two paediatric drug development units.

A phase I/II trial of interleukin-15--stimulated natural killer cell infusion after haplo-identical stem cell transplantation for pediatric refractory solid tumors.

Background Aims: Preliminary data suggest that T-cell-depleted haplo-identical stem cell transplantation (haplo-SCT) has a clinically beneficial allograft-versus-tumor effect associated with natural killer (NK) cell immune reconstitution.

Methods: This phase I/II trial descriptively evaluates the feasibility of interleukin (IL)-15-stimulated NK cell infusion after haplo-SCT in pediatric patients with refractory solid tumors.

Results: Six patients received an IL-15-stimulated NK cell infusion at 30 days after haplo-SCT.

Unusual sites of extrapulmonary metastases of osteosarcoma after several lines of treatment.

The authors report a case of peritoneal and chest wall metastases in a 17-year-old boy previously diagnosed of femur osteosarcoma with metastases in the lung and bones. Although the patient achieved complete remission after initial treatment, he presented with lung metastasis 15 months after initial diagnosis. They were resected 3 times and he received second-line chemotherapy with gemcitabine and docetaxel.

Successful treatment of intracranial ependymoma with leptomeningeal spread with systemic chemotherapy and intrathecal liposomal cytarabine in a two-year-old child.

Ependymoma is the third most common CNS tumor in children. Neuraxis dissemination at the time of diagnosis is rare and occurs in fewer than 10% of patients. Recent advances in neuroimaging, neurosurgery, and radiation therapy have improved disease control and functional outcomes for children with ependymoma.