Epidemiology, Incidence, and Survival of Rhabdomyosarcoma Subtypes: SEER and ICES Database Analysis

ABSTRACT Rhabdomyosarcoma is the most common soft‐tissue sarcoma in children and adolescents and accounts for 3% of all pediatric tumors. Subtypes include alveolar, spindle cell, embryonal, mixed‐type, pleomorphic, and rhabdomyosarcoma with ganglionic differentiation. The National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database was queried for patients diagnosed with any type of rhabdomyosarcoma between 1973 and 2014. Patient demographics, tumor characteristics, and incidence were studied with χ2 analysis. Survival was modeled with Kaplan–Meier survival curves and Cox proportional hazards models were used to assess the effect of age and gender on survival. Pleomorphic subtype had higher grade and larger sized tumors compared to other subtypes (p