title: The value of neutron- and neutron-boost irradiation for the local control of advanced soft tissue sarcomas.
abstract: An analysis of neutron- and neutron-boost irradiation of 191 patients with soft tissue sarcomas is given. 101 patients had T3 (IVA) tumours. The actuarial disease free survival rate of all stages at 6.5 years is 59.8%. Patients with T1 and T2 tumours fared significantly better (73.5%) than patients with T3 tumours (31.3%, p = 0.016). Similar difference are seen according to grade, i.e. 75.1% for G1, 48.3% for G2 (p = 0.035) and 30.9% for G3 tumours (p = 0.024). Patients without microscopic tumour residue fared best (84%), followed by patients with microscopic tumour (72.3%) and patients with gross tumour (29.8%) left behind (p = 0.0003). A functional limb was preserved in 80.5% of patients with extremity lesions (95/118), 50 of them had T3-lesions. The highest local control rate of 76.5% was seen after neutron therapy of differentiated gross tumours. This finding underlines the biological advantage of densely ionizing radiation qualities in these tumours.
mesh_terms: D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005214:Fast Neutrons; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009502:Neutrons; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000601:surgery; D012983:Soft Tissue Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000601:surgery