Adult Soft Tissue Sarcomas of the Head and Neck: An Institutional Review

Purpose: To review treatment results for primary soft tissue sarcomas of the head and neck in order to determine prognostic factors. Materials and Methods: From 1970–2000, 44 adult patients were diagnosed with a biopsy-proven, non-metastatic primary soft tissue sarcoma in a head and neck subsite, were treated with curative intent, and had adequate follow-up and records for our review. Patients with extraosseous Ewing's sarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma were excluded. The most common tumor histologies included MFH (15 patients), angiosarcoma (9), fibrosarcoma (6), and leiomyosarcoma (6). Results: The median overall survival for all patients was 79 months. The actuarial 5-year local control for all patients was 55%, and was highly correlated with extent of surgical excision: 25% for subtotal resection/debulking, 65% for wide local excision, and 100% for radical excision (p Conclusions: Multimodality therapy with both surgery and radiotherapy improves local control particularly among patients with close/positive surgical margins. Aggressive attempts at salvage therapy for locoregional failures are warranted, and frequently produce long term disease control.