Superficial soft tissue sarcomas (S-STS): a study of 367 patients from the French Sarcoma Group (FSG) database.
OBJECTIVE
The specific natural history of superficial soft tissue sarcomas (S-STS) has been rarely considered. We describe the clinical characteristics of a large series of S-STS (N=367) from the French Sarcoma Group (GSF-GETO) database and analyse the prognostic factors affecting outcome.


METHODS
We performed univariate and multivariate analyses for overall survival (OS), metastasis-free survival (MFS) and local recurrence-free survival (LRFS).


RESULTS
The median age was 59 years. Fifty-eight percent patients were female. Tumour locations were as follows: extremities, 55%; trunk wall, 35.4%; head and neck, 8% and unknown, 1.6%. Median tumour size was 3.0 cm. The most frequent tumour types were unclassified sarcoma (24.3%) and leiomyosarcoma (22.3%). Thirty-three percent of cases were grade 3. Median follow-up was 6.18 years. The 5-year OS, MFS and LRFS rates were 80.9%, 80.7% and 74.7%, respectively. Multivariate analysis retained histological type and wide resection for predicting LRFS and histological type and grade as prognostic factors of MFS. The factors influencing OS were age, histological type, grade and wide resection. STS with early invasion into but not through the underlying fascia had a significantly poorer MFS than with strict S-STS.


CONCLUSIONS
S-STS represent a separate category characterised by a better outcome. Adequate surgery, i.e. wide resection, is essential in the management of S-STS.
Department of Pathology, Bergonié Institute, 229 cours de l'Argonne, 33076 Bordeaux Cedex, France. sebastien.salas@ap-hm.fr
Sébastien
S
Salas
Eberhard
E
Stoeckle
Françoise
F
Collin
Binh
B
Bui
Philippe
P
Terrier
Louis
L
Guillou
Martine
M
Trassard
Dominique
D
Ranchere-Vince
Fleur
F
Gregoire
Jean-Michel
JM
Coindre
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000556:secondary / Q000628:therapy; D012983:Soft Tissue Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D055815:Young Adult