Pretreatment characteristics of 281 children with nonmetastatic rhabdomyosarcoma, included in the registry of the International Society of Pediatric Oncology (SIOP) between January 1975 and December 1983, were examined to study the children's prognosis. The multivariate statistical method (Cox regression model) was used for each of two endpoints: survival time and disease-free time. The three most important predictors for survival time were primary site (p less than .001), clinical stage (p = .009), and sex (p = .020). The best results involved paratesticular and orbital primary sites, regardless of the clinical stage; males fared slightly better than females. These same three factors were also significant predictors for disease-free time.