Elsevier

Current Problems in Surgery

Volume 33, Issue 10, October 1996, Pages 820-837, 839-872
Current Problems in Surgery

Soft tissue sarcomas

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0011-3840(96)80013-XGet rights and content
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Summary

Soft tissue sarcomas are relatively rare tumors with an annual incidence of5000 to 6000 in the United States. The primary therapy is surgical resection with an adequate margin of normal tissue. For patients at high risk local control is improved with postoperative adjuvant radiation. Local recurrence rates vary depending on the anatomic site. In extremity lesions one third of patients will have locally recurrent disease with a median disease-free interval of 18 months. Treatment results for extremity local recurrence may approach those for primary disease. Isolated pulmonary metastases may be resected with 20% to 30% 3-year survival rates. Patients with sarcomas in other sites present similar but more difficult problems in terms of local control and management of disseminated disease. Patients with unresectable pulmonary metastases or extrapulmonary metastatic sarcoma have a uniformly poor prognosis and are best treated with systemic chemotherapy.

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Jonathan J. Lewis is an Assistant Attending surgeon on the Gastric and Mixed Tumor Service at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He is a graduate of Witwatersrand University, South Africa, and completed his surgical training at the Yale New Haven Hospital and Yale Medical School. He trained in surgical oncology at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. His primary interest is surgical oncology and applications of molecular and gen therapy to sarcoma, melanoma, and pancreatic cancer.

Murray F. Brennan is the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Surgery and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Canc Center. He is a graduate of the University of Otago, New Zealand, and completed his surgical training at the Brigham Hospital and Harvard Medical School. His primary interest is surgical oncology, and he has a long-standing interest in the biology and management of soft tissue sarcoma.