Prognostic Signif icance of Prol i ferat ing Cell Nuclear Antigen Expression in Soft Tissue Sarcomas of the

=Abstract = We analysed 40 patients with soft tissue sarcomas (STS) of the extremities to investigate the prognostic significance of the growth fraction of the tumor. The patients consisted of 2 7 males and 13 females, and the ages ranged from 18 to 7 0 years (median 46.9 years). Tumors were located in the thigh (47. 5%), forearm (15%), buttock ( lo%), shoulder ( lo%), axilla (5%), arm (5%), lower leg (5%), and foot (2.5%) in a descending order of frequency. Histologically, malignant fibrous histiocytoma (25%) and liposarcoma (25%) were the most common types, followed by synovial sarcoma (17.5%), malignant schwannoma ( lo%) , and rhabdomyosarcoma (5%). Local recurrence ranging from 1 t o 4 times (average 1.7 times) was noted in 18 cases (45%). Distant metastasis was found in 5 out of 30 patients (16.7%), and the lung, liver, and abdominal wall were the predilection sites. Cumulative survival rates of all STS studied were 76 % and 5 8 % in 2 years and 5 years, respectively. Univariate analysis revealed that patient's age, surgical stage, histologic grade, differentiation of tumor cells, mitotic count, and proliferative index were related t o survival. Among know