Megatherapy and stem cell transplantation for Ewing's family of tumors: A critical review of current literature

Abstract:  Although a multimodal approach consisting of chemotherapy and local control with surgery and/or radiation has improved survival in children with Ewing's sarcoma family of tumors, the prognosis for patients with high‐risk disease remains poor. More aggressive treatments with high‐dose myeloablative chemotherapy followed by stem cell rescue have been utilized in an attempt to improve survival in these patients. Although many studies have been published, it is difficult to interpret the data since patient populations were heterogeneous with respect to disease stage, prior therapy, conditioning and stem cell source. Furthermore, there was no uniform definition of high risk, the sample sizes were small and most studies lacked appropriate control groups. Assessment of the utility of megatherapy will require prospective controlled studies.