Collecting and Storing Tissue, Blood, and Bone Marrow Samples From Patients With Rhabdomyosarcoma or Other Soft Tissue Sarcoma

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

I. Collect human tumor tissue and other biological specimens (blood, serum, and bone marrow)
from patients with rhabdomyosarcoma or non-rhabdomyosarcoma soft tissue sarcoma diagnosed
and/or treated at a Children's Oncology Group (COG) member institution.

II. Provide a repository for storage of tissue and other biological specimens collected by
COG investigators from these patients.

III. Make these specimens available for approved projects by laboratory-based investigators.

IV. Collect clinical data on these patients who are not being treated on a COG therapeutic
study.

V. Define and compare the clinical features of patient subgroups with alveolar
rhabdomyosarcoma whose tumors carry the t(2;13), t(1;13) or neither translocation.

VI. Investigate the relationship between evidence of submicroscopic disease and response rate
(CR/PR), failure-free survival, and survival of patients with alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, as
determined by positive or negative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)
assay for the t(2:13) and t(1:13) on peripheral blood and bone marrow specimens obtained at
diagnosis.

VII. Compare the clinical, cytogenetic, and molecular biologic features of patient subgroups
with anaplastic rhabdomyosarcoma and other subtypes of rhabdomyosarcoma.

OUTLINE:

Surgical tissue, bone marrow, and blood specimens are collected at diagnosis (initial or
relapse) and, if applicable, at the development of a second primary tumor. Specimens are used
for research purposes. A certificate of confidentiality protecting the identity of research
participants in this project has been issued by the National Cancer Institute.

Patients who are not enrolled on a Children's Oncology Group treatment trial are followed
every 6 months for at least 10 years or until disease progression or development of a second
malignancy.

Inclusion Criteria:

- Histologically or cytologically confirmed diagnosis of 1 of the following:

- Rhabdomyosarcoma

- Non-rhabdomyosarcoma soft tissue sarcoma

- Chordoma

- Desmoid fibromatosis

- Desmoplastic round cell tumors

- Undifferentiated embryonal sarcoma of the liver

- Unclassified soft tissue sarcoma that is too undifferentiated to be placed in a
specific pathologic category in the WHO classification (often called
?undifferentiated soft tissue sarcoma? or ?soft tissue sarcoma NOS?)

- Other soft tissue neoplasms, excluding benign tumors

- Must have pathological specimens of tumor-containing tissue or bone marrow (beyond
that needed by the institution for diagnosis) available for study

- No malignant rhabdoid tumor, Ewing sarcoma/primitive neuroectodermal tumor, or
osteogenic sarcoma of bone

- No osteogenic sarcoma