Nine children with soft tissue sarcomas, five of them rhabdomyosarcomas with initial metastatic disease, (one patient, partial response, one patient), refractory primary, (two patients, relapse, five patients) were treated with a combination of high-dose VP16 (100 mg/m2 daily for 5 days) and cisplatin (40 mg/m2 daily for 5 days). The response rate was five out of nine or 55% (+/- 32%) (two complete and three partial, responses). Three of the five responders had rhabdomyosarcomas. The duration of response was 4-58 months (median 11 months). The toxicity was mainly hematological. Thus, the high-dose VP16-cisplatin association warrants further evaluation in soft tissue sarcoma in children.