Primary adult soft tissue sarcomas: analysis of 294 patients

We retrospectively analyzed 294 patients with primary soft tissue sarcoma followed between 1996 and 2002 in Ankara Oncology Hospital. There were 170 male and 124 female patients with the age range of 16–80 years. The primary tumor was in the extremity in 72.9% of the patients. We determined lung metastasis in 102 (85%) out of the 120 patients as distant metastasis. The most common adult sarcomas were liposarcoma (16.3%), malignant mesenchymal tumor (MMT) (13.9%), malignant fibrous histiocytoma (MFH) (11.2%), rhabdomyosarcoma (10.2%) and synovial sarcoma (10.2%). Seventeen patients (5.3%) had grade 1 tumor, 143 patients (52.2%) had grade 2 tumor, and 112 patients (41.4%) had grade 3 tumor. In 45 patients (15.3%), the grade of the tumors is unknown. The tumor size was 0 to <5 cm in 54 cases (19.4%), 5–10 cm in 117 cases (41.9%) and >10 cm in 108 cases (38.7%). In 15 cases (5.1%), tumor size was unknown. Ninety-five patients (32.4%) were treated with adjuvant chemotherapy, and 125 patients (42.7%)) were treated with palliative chemotherapy. Prognostic factors influencing the overall survival were tumor size, grade, adjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Adjuvant radiotherapy had influence on disease-free survival. While tumor grade and size showed a significant value for predicting local recurrence, grade, localization of tumor, adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy had an impact on metastasis development. The 1-year overall survival for all patients was 73.4%, 3-year overall survival was 51.8%, and 5-year overall survival was 45.1%.