EPIDEMIOLOGY OF SOFT-TISSUE SARCOMA IN THE LOCOMOTOR SYSTEM - A RETROSPECTIVE POPULATION-BASED STUDY OF THE INTER-RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CLINICAL AND MORPHOLOGIC VARIABLES

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  • 1 January 1984
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 92  (5) , 363-374
Abstract
From all soft-tissue malignancies reported to the Swedish National Cancer Registry in Southern Sweden (1.3 million inhabitants) from 1964-1978, 278 cases were accepted as sarcomas after histologic re-examination. All these were malignancy-graded on a 4-grade scale, without knowledge of the clinical course. A number of clinical and morphological variables were recorded and subjected to uni-, bi- and multi-variate analysis. Follow-up was available in all patients. The annual incidence rate over all ages was 1.4/100,000. The mean age was 58 yr and males dominated (1.3/1). Malignant fibrous histiocytoma, liposarcoma and leiomyosarcoma were the most common histologic groups. Of the tumors, 3/4 were high-grade malignant (Grade III-IV). Deep-seated were 60%, having a median size of 8 cm compared to 4 cm for the superficial tumors. One third of all tumors were located in the thigh. The histologic groups were characterized by age, tumor depth and size, the occurrence of pain, malignancy grade and 5 yr survival; it was seen that each group, with respect to at least one of the variables, differed significantly from all the other groups. Histologic classification seems to identify different tumor entities. Out of several pair-wise associations the strongest were as follows: histologic groups vs. depth, size malignancy grade and age; depth vs. size; and size vs. malignancy grade (Grade IV tumors being larger). The proportion of superficial and small tumors in this series is high, compared to several reported series, probably owing to referral selection in the previous studies. The inter-relationships found between several variables and conclusions based on selected series may explain, in part, the differing opinions which can be found regarding prognostic variables in soft-tissue sarcoma.