title: Soft-tissue sarcomas of the extremities in patients of pediatric age.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The extremity site is a peculiar location for soft-tissue sarcomas (STS) of children and adolescents. Here we report the experience of the Pediatric Oncology Unit of the Istituto Nazionale Tumori of Milan, Italy, concerning 204 patients with STS of the limbs treated between 1977 and 2006.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study series included 52 patients with rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS)(65% of which were of the alveolar subtype), nine with extraosseous Ewing sarcoma and 143 with non-rhabdomyosarcoma soft-tissue sarcomas (NRSTS), 38% of which were synovial sarcoma. Patients were treated with a multimodality approach including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For the RMS patients, the 5-year event-free survival (EFS) rate was 37.1%, with distant metastases being the main cause of treatment failure. The outcome was particularly poor for patients with large invasive tumors, hand/foot involvement and/or nodal or distant metastases, and for patients who were not given radiotherapy. For the extraosseous Ewing sarcoma cases, 5-year EFS was 74%. For the NRSTS cases, the 5-year EFS was 72.6%: tumor size and local invasiveness, tumor grade, malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST) histology, and distant metastases were the main prognostic factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While the limbs are the most common sites of NRSTS and are often characterized by a more favorable prognosis than for axial tumors, the clinical features of extremity RMS often differ from those of RMS of other sites, with a higher incidence of unfavorable prognostic factors (e.g., alveolar subtype) and consequently unsatisfactory treatment results. The treatment of these patients is complex and necessarily multidisciplinary, and it demands not only adequate experience of treating children and adolescents in clinical trials, but also particular skills in the field of orthopedic surgery.
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Oncology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale Tumori, Via G. Venezian, 1, 20133, Milan MI, Italy.
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Casanova
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Meazza
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gronchi
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fiore
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zaffignani
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Podda
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Collini
authors.forename: Lorenza
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gandola
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ferrari