title: Age as an independent prognostic factor for survival of localised synovial sarcoma patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We performed a retrospective nationwide study to explore age as a prognostic factor in synovial sarcoma patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data on 613 synovial sarcoma patients were obtained from the Netherlands Cancer Registry. The prognostic relevance of age groups (children, adolescent and young adults (AYAs), adults, and elderly) was estimated by Kaplan-Meier survival curves and multivariable Cox-proportional hazards modelling.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 461 patients had localised disease at diagnosis. The 5-year overall survival (OS) was 89.3±4.6%, 73.0±3.8%, 54.7±3.6%, and 43.0±7.0% in children (n=54), AYAs (n=148), adults (n=204), and elderly (n=55), respectively. Treatment modalities had no significant effect on survival in the univariable analysis. Multivariable analysis identified age at diagnosis, tumour localisation, and tumour size as significant factors affecting OS. Both tumour localisation and size were equally distributed over the age groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We show that outcome of synovial sarcoma patients significantly decreases with age regardless of primary tumour site, size, and treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Radboud University Medical Center, PO Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Myrella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vlenterie
authors.affiliation: Netherlands Comprehensive Cancer Organisation (IKNL), PO Box 19079, 3501 DB Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Vincent K Y
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Radboud University Medical Center, PO Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Suzanne E J
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Kaal
authors.affiliation: Health Evidence, Radboudumc, PO Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Richelle
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vlenterie
authors.affiliation: Radiotherapy, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek hospital - the Netherlands Cancer Institute, PO Box 90203, 1006 BE Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Rick
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Haas
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Radboud University Medical Center, PO Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands.|The Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
authors.forename: Winette T A
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: van der Graaf
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012042:Registries; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013584:Sarcoma, Synovial / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D015996:Survival Rate; D055815:Young Adult