Soft tissue sarcoma

Soft-tissue sarcomas are a rare group of tumours comprising approximately 1% of all malignant tumours. The annual age-adjusted incidence is 2 per 100000. Conventional management has relied heavily on surgery, but the inadequacy of this approach is reflected by local recurrence rates of 40%–80% in adult sarcomas and of as high as 90% in childhood sarcomas. Suit et al., treating 100 patients with localized soft-tissue sarcoma using limited surgery and high-dose radiation therapy, made the following observations: 1. Histological grade affected prognosis (disease-free survivals of 86% for grade I tumours compared with 17% for grade III). 2. Size of the primary tumour determined the subsequent local recurrence rate (18% for tumours < 5 cm compared with 8% for those 5 cm). 3. Site of the primary tumour was important (local recurrence rate 33% for proximal site compared with 5% for a distal site).