Objective: To describe the long-term clinical outcome of patients with low-grade soft-tissue sarcoma and identify factors that may predict or determine their prognosis.
Design: Retrospective chart review with multivariate analysis.
Setting: Large research hospital and referral center.
Patients: All patients treated between 1975 and 1990 at the National Cancer Institute (Bethesda, Md) who had a confirmed diagnosis of low-grade soft-tissue sarcoma.
Interventions: Surgery and radiation therapy.
Main outcome measures: Local recurrence and overall survival.
Results: For patients with nonretroperitoneal lesions, overall survival was excellent, with a history of recurrence, a positive surgical margin, and an absence of adjuvant radiation therapy significantly associated with increased risks of local recurrence. Patients with retroperitoneal lesions not only had an increased risk of local recurrence, but significantly poorer overall survival.
Conclusions: Low-grade soft-tissue sarcomas are associated with excellent overall survival, especially those confined to nonretroperitoneal sites. The risk of local recurrence after resection with negative margins and/or adjuvant radiation therapy is very low and most recurrences can be controlled with further therapy.