Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, 14 (11), [6821][6822][6823][6824][6825][6826][6827][6828][6829][6830][6831][6832] Introduction Soft-tissue sarcomas (STS) are a heterogeneous group of rare tumours. More than 50 STS histotypes have been identified, with most having unique clinical, prognostic, and therapeutic features. Although less than 1% of all adult malignant tumours are STS (Fletcher et al., 2002a), their treatment and management is complex because many tumour-related (eg, histotype, site, size, depth, grade, primary vs recurrent) (Singer et al., 1994;2000;Pisters et al., 1996) and treatment-related (eg, surgical margins, use of adjuvant therapy) (Singer et al., 2000) factors influence patient outcomes. Because these factors are inherently variable and because STS is rare, the management of patients with STS is best undertaken by an experienced multidisciplinary team in specialist centres to minimise recurrence, maximise survival, and preserve functionality and quality of life (Ray-Coquard et al., 2004;Luis et al., 2010; National Comprehensive Cancer Network, 2012).The standard primary treatment for STS is surgical
AbstractBackground: Soft-tissue sarcomas require tailored and multidisciplinary treatment and management. However, little is known about how sarcomas are treated and managed throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Materials and Methods: MEDLINE was systematically searched using prespecified criteria. Publications (previous 10 years) that reported tumour characteristics, treatment patterns, survival outcomes, and/or safety outcomes of patients with soft-tissue sarcoma were selected. Exclusion criteria were studies of patients <18 years of age; ≤10 patients; countries other than Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, or Thailand; >20% benign tumours; sarcomas located in bones or joints; gastrointestinal stromal tumour; Kaposi's sarcoma; or not reporting relevant outcomes. Results: Of the 1,822 publications retrieved, 35 (32 studies) were included. Nearly all patients (98%, 1,992/2,024; 31 studies) were treated with surgery, and more studies used adjuvant radiotherapy than chemotherapy (24 vs 17 studies). Survival outcomes and recurrence rates varied among the studies because of the different histotypes, sites, and disease stages assessed. Only 5 studies reported safety findings. Conclusions: These findings highlight the lack of specific data available about soft-tissue sarcomas in the Asia-Pacific region. Better efforts to understand how the sarcoma is managed and treated will help improve patient outcomes in the region.