title: The clinical effect of a positive surgical margin and adjuvant postoperative radiotherapy in the treatment of resectable desmoid tumors.
abstract: Desmoid tumors (DTs) are benign tumors that exhibit fibroblastic proliferation, which arises from fascial or musculoaponeurotic structures. The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics and outcomes of patients with resectable DTs. A total of 21 patients were included and their clinicopathological characteristics were retrospectively analyzed. The 21 patients (16 females and 5 males) were identified through reviewing the patient charts at our institute. The tumor was located in the lower extremities in 7 cases, in the upper extremities in 4 cases, in the abdominal region in 9 cases and in the neck region in 1 case. Patients who had been initially treated by surgical excision were included in the study. Of these 21 patients, a positive surgical margin (SM) was reported in 11 patients, 7 of whom received postoperative radiotherapy (RT). Ten patients had a negative SM and 6 received RT. A total of 5 patients (46%) in the positive SM group and 4 (40%) in the negative SM group had documented disease relapse (P>0.05). The median relapse-free survival (RFS) was 20.5 months for the patients treated by surgery alone and 50 months for those treated with surgery followed by adjuvant RT (P>0.05). Age, gender, SM and adjuvant RT were not identified as predictors of recurrence. No predictive factors appeared to indicate local DT recurrence following surgery.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Medical Oncology, Istanbul University, 34390 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Senem
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Karabulut
authors.affiliation: Departments of Medical Oncology, Istanbul University, 34390 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Serkan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Keskin
authors.affiliation: Departments of Medical Oncology, Istanbul University, 34390 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Meltem
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ekenel
authors.affiliation: Departments of Medical Oncology, Istanbul University, 34390 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Mert
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Basaran
authors.affiliation: Radiation Oncology, Institute of Oncology, Istanbul University, 34390 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Fulya
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Agaoglu
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul University, 34390 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Harzem
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ozger
authors.affiliation: Departments of Medical Oncology, Istanbul University, 34390 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sevil
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bavbek
keywords: desmoid disease; radiotherapy; surgery