ASO Author Reflections: Amputation for Extremity Sarcoma

Excerpt

For patients with extremity sarcoma (ES), the landmark National Cancer Institute phase 3 trial demonstrated no difference in overall survival between treatment using limb-sparing surgery (LSS) with external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) and treatment using primary amputation.1 Accordingly, LSS has become the standard of care, and < 10% of patients with ES are treated with amputation in the modern era.2 The subset of patients still requiring amputation for treatment of ES have worse survival,3 likely due to larger, more aggressive tumors. However, less is known about the indication and outcome for patients requiring amputation after an initial LSS (delayed amputation for recurrence) and about how these patients compare with those requiring primary amputation. …