title: Increasing frequency of soft tissue sarcomas in Vojvodina - comparison with the literature.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) represent 1% of all malignant lesions. In this study the authors analyzed the incidence of STS in Vojvodina (the north region of Serbia) in the period from 1985 to 2009. A number of studies conducted worldwide indicate that STS incidence rates are tending to increase.
  
  
  METHODS
  On the basis of data from the Cancer Registry of Vojvodina, age standardized STS incidence rates were established as well as their linear trend, with data on histological structure, age, gender and STS distribution at specific locations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The total number of registered patients was 1,308. Average age standardized rate was 1.90/100,000 per year. The investigated period showed a slight increase in the incidence rate (average annual percent increase=0.77%). The most frequent histological type was sarcoma not otherwise specified-NOS (27%), followed by leiomyosarcoma (21%), liposarcoma (14%), rhabdomyosarcoma (11%) and malignant fibrous histiocytoma (9%). The male/female ratio was 0.73:1. Every fifth patient was younger than 39.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Comparison among eight international STS epidemiology studies show that the incidence rate range is between 1.4/100,000-5.0/100,000, though our finding is closer to the lower limit. Furthermore, the incidence rate increase was lower than that characteristic for the half of the analyzed studies. A partial explanation for that should be looked for among changes in diagnostic criteria and STS classifications.
authors.affiliation: Oncology Institute of Vojvodina, Sremska Kamenica, Serbia E-mail : dugandzija.tihomir@onk.ns.ac.rs.
authors.forename: Tihomir
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dugandzija
authors.forename: Marica Miladinov
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Mikov
authors.forename: Nenad
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Solajic
authors.forename: Borislava
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nikolin
authors.forename: Jasna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Trifunovic
authors.forename: Maja
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ilic
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012042:Registries; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012196:Review Literature as Topic; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000453:epidemiology*; D055771:Serbia / Q000453:epidemiology