Rhabdomyosarcoma in Adults: De Novo or Conversion From Non-seminomas?

TL;DR

This paper discusses a rare case of adult rhabdomyosarcoma, a deadly soft tissue tumor, that complicatedly arose in a patient with a history of testicular cancer.

Contribution

The novelty lies in presenting a rare case of RMS possibly arising from non-seminomatous germ-cell tumor recurrence.

Findings

Rhabdomyosarcoma in adults is rare and difficult to treat.

This case highlights the diagnostic challenge of distinguishing RMS from testicular cancer recurrence.

The patient's death underscores the poor prognosis of adult RMS.

Abstract

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a highly sporadic, very aggressive, and fatal soft tissue tumor in adults. Although more common and treatable in the pediatric population, the occurrence of pleomorphic RMS in adults has a low incidence. Hence, it is not easy to treat. Surgery is the primary definitive treatment, along with radiation therapy, while adjuvant chemotherapy has recently gained popularity. We present an infrequent case of RMS in a patient with a recent history of mixed non-seminomatous germ-cell tumor testicular cancer. Therefore, it was challenging to treat the RMS as a new malignancy or as a recurrence of non-seminomatous testicular cancer. Our patient passed away, unfortunately, but we hope this case can help the minimal data in this regard in order to save more lives in the future.

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