Body wall and visceral nonrhabdomyosarcoma soft tissue sarcomas in children and adolescents.
BACKGROUND
Predictors of outcome have not been established for pediatric visceral and body wall nonrhabdomyosarcoma soft tissue sarcomas (NRSTS).


METHODS
The study used a retrospective review of clinical features and outcome of 61 patients with visceral and body wall NRSTS evaluated at our institution between March 1962 and December 1999.


RESULTS
Median age at diagnosis was 9.9 years (range, birth to 17.4 years). Tumors were greater than 5 cm in 43 (70%), high grade in 33 (54%), invasive in 25 (41%), and metastatic at presentation in 14 (23%) patients. Visceral tumors (n = 27) were more likely than body wall tumors (n = 34) to be greater than 5 cm (93% vs 53%; P < .001) and invasive (70% vs 18%; P < .001) and were less likely to be resected at diagnosis (44% vs 85%; P = .001). Estimated 10-year event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) for the entire cohort were 45.5% +/- 6.9% and 56.8% +/- 6.7%, respectively. The 10-year EFS and OS were better for patients with body wall sites than for those with visceral sites (61.8% +/- 8.5% and 67.5% +/- 8.2% vs 24.2% +/- 9.4% and 43.0% +/- 10.3%; P = .004 and P = .004). The 10-year estimated cumulative incidence (CI) of local recurrence was higher for patients with visceral sites than for those with body wall sites (64.3% +/- 9.8% vs 26.5% +/- 7.7%; P = .004), whereas CI of distant recurrence was similar for the 2 sites (15.2% +/- 7.2% vs 23.5% +/- 7.4%; P = .39).


CONCLUSIONS
Pediatric patients with visceral NRSTS are more likely to have invasive, large, and unresectable tumors compared to those with body wall tumors. More than two thirds of visceral NRSTS recur locally, and fewer than half of patients with visceral tumors survive.
Department of Oncology, St Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN 38105-2794, USA. fariba.navid@stjude.org
Fariba
F
Navid
Catherine A
CA
Billups
Matthew J
MJ
Krasin
Andrew M
AM
Davidoff
Joann
J
Harper
Bhaskar N
BN
Rao
Sheri L
SL
Spunt
D000008:Abdominal Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy; D034861:Abdominal Wall / Q000601:surgery; D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000592:standards; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D018714:Radiotherapy, Adjuvant; D012307:Risk Factors; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000628:therapy*; D012983:Soft Tissue Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000628:therapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014781:Viscera / Q000601:surgery