title: Soft tissue sarcomas of the head and neck in adults.
abstract: We reviewed the clinical records and pathologic material of 176 adults with primary soft tissue sarcomas treated at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center between 1950 and 1985. Seventy-two patients (41%) had low-grade sarcomas and 104 (59%) had high-grade sarcomas. All but 18 patients underwent some form of excision as initial therapy. Adjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy combined with surgical excision showed no significant effect. A significantly increased risk of treatment failure was associated with large tumor size, positive surgical margins, bone involvement, local recurrence, metastatic spread, and high histologic grade. Except for recurrence, the p value by univariate analysis in the log-rank test for comparison of survival according to these clinical and pathologic characteristics was p less than 0.0001. Although the overall survival was 75% at 2 years, 55% at 5 years, and 46% at 10 years, only 20% of the patients with high-grade sarcomas were alive 10 years after treatment. Most patients with rhabdomyosarcoma, high-grade peripheral nerve tumor, and high-grade fibrous histiocytoma and all patients with high-grade angiosarcoma died of disease less than 5 years after diagnosis. New therapeutic strategies are needed to improve the survival of adult patients with high-grade soft tissue sarcomas of the head and neck.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York 10021.
authors.forename: A I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Farhood
authors.forename: S I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Hajdu
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Shiu
authors.forename: E W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Strong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary / Q000628:therapy; D012983:Soft Tissue Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D015996:Survival Rate