The problem of local recurrence and metastasis in soft-tissue sarcoma

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to evaluate local recurrence of soft-tissue sarcomas as a prognostic factor reflecting adequate or inadequate excision. METHODS: We reviewed the cases of 53 patients who had soft-tissue sarcomas and were treated between 1991 and 2001. All patients were treated operatively, but 11 of them (20.75%), before being sent to us were operated elsewhere with inadequate surgical margins. The oncology status, including local recurrence and metastasis was determined at the follow-up evaluation. RESULTS: All of 11 patients treated with inadequate excision had palpably or histologically determined local recurrence. The most common histological diagnosis of local recurrence was dermatofibroma protuberans (7 patients, 63.63%). In patients who were treated with planned and adequate excision there were 4 (9.52%) recurrences. Five patients (45.45%) had metastases in the group of inadequate and only one patient (1.88%) in the group of adequate surgical margins. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated that excellent rates of survival and low rates of local recurrence and distant metastasis of soft-tissue sarcomas could be obtained with the use of carefully planned radical resection. The quality of operation is the most important factor