title: Vascular soft-tissue sarcomas: a prognostic model from a retrospective single-center study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Vascular soft-tissue sarcomas are a rare form of sarcoma. Malignant subtypes exhibit a variety of biological behaviors. We describe the clinicopathological characteristics and patient survival outcomes of malignant vascular soft-tissue sarcomas.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a retrospective study on a cohort of 84 patients diagnosed with vascular tumors by histological examination at the Yonsei University College of Medicine between April 1987 and August 2011. The primary end point was overall survival (OS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The angiosarcoma patients had a significantly shorter OS than the patients with other subtypes of sarcomas (59.0 and 142.7 months, respectively; p < 0.001). Upon multivariate analysis of survival in patients who underwent surgical resection, the following independent prognostic factors were identified: primary site (trunk, p = 0.001), age (older than 65 years, p < 0.001), pathology (angiosarcoma, p = 0.006) and R2 resection (p = 0.002).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The independent prognostic factors for shorter survival are the trunk as the primary site, malignant angiosarcoma and age (>65 years). Complete excision should be attempted for providing a survival advantage in the patients with localized disease. In addition, bleeding episodes are much more frequent in patients with a poor survival outcome.
authors.affiliation: Division of Medical Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Kyoung Sook
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Hyo Song
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Yong Jin
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Sun Young
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Rha
authors.forename: Joong Bae
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.forename: Woo Ik
authors.initials: WI
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Young Han
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jin-Suck
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Suh
authors.forename: Kyoo-Ho
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Jae Kyung
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Roh
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006394:Hemangiosarcoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome