Prognostic factors in soft tissue sarcomas: The Aarhus experience

A Systematic Overview of Radiation Therapy Effects in Soft Tissue Sarcomas

“…Extremity-located STS show a higher local control rate than tumours located at other sites. Among extremity tumours, the lower limb is associated with a poorer survival prognosis than the upper limb (2). It has also been stated that distal location on the extremity means a poorer outcome in local control than proximal location (15).…”

“…Among the papers reviewed, age has been found to be a strong prognostic factor for disease-free and overall survival in STS. Older age, above 50 to 55 years, is associated with a poorer outcome (1,2,7,10,15).…”

“…Several other retrospective studies underscore a benefit of adjuvant radiotherapy for local control for extremity and trunk STS, especially for marginal and positive surgical margins (1,2,15,16). However, selected patients with extremity STS, operated on with wide margins and who have an expected low risk of local recurrence may not require adjuvant radiotherapy after limb-sparing surgery (24,25).…”

“…However, there is a paucity of dose-response data (3,9,11,28). In general, the preoperative EBRT dose used in most centres is 50 Gy in 2 Gy fractions (2,6,38). Depending on the pathological findings, a postoperative boost of 10 to 15 Gy is given.…”

Hypoxia in human soft tissue sarcomas: Adverse impact on survival and no association with p53 mutations

“…Using 3 eligibility criteria: (1) age ≥ 18 years, (2) tumour accessible for invasive oxygen electrode measurements and (3) minimum tumour diameter of 2 cm, most of the 33 patients matched a background population of 316 primary STS referred to our centre between January 1979 and July 1993 (Vraa et al, 1998). The local ethical committee gave approval and all patients gave informed consent according to the Helsinki Declaration II.…”