Preoperative therapy for unresectable malignant tumors in children.

Thirty-six children with initially unresectable malignant tumors were managed with pre- and postoperative therapy combined with reduction of primary tumor burden by total or subtotal resection. The proportion of patients achieving long-term tumor-free survival after surgery was 0.48 in the Wilms' tumor group and 0.60 among patients with other regionally unresectable malignant neoplasms. These results are encouraging in an otherwise high mortality situation.