Brain Metastasis in Soft Tissue Sarcoma at Initial Presentation

Background/aim Brain metastasis is a rare condition among patients with soft tissue sarcoma (STS), and its precise incidence remains unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate which patients should be screened for brain metastasis. Patients and methods We identified all patients with STS diagnosed between 2010 and 2015 in the SEER database. Incidence of brain metastasis at initial presentation and higher incidence of brain metastasis by histological subtype were investigated. In addition, risk factors for brain metastasis were examined. Results A total of 26,676 patients were included for analysis, of whom 162 patients (0.6%) had brain metastasis. Alveolar soft part sarcoma (6.3%), malignant hemangioendothelioma (3.1%) and malignant schwannoma (2.6%) showed higher incidence of brain metastasis. Deep-rooted tumor, trunk tumor, and histological high-grade tumor tended to show higher incidence of brain metastasis. Conclusion Risk factors for brain metastasis were deep location, trunk development and histologically high-grade tumor, or specific histological subtypes.