Palliative surgery of soft tissue sarcoma

Outcome of Surgery as Part of Palliative Care of Patients with Symptomatic Advanced or Metastatic Extra-Abdominal High-Grade Soft Tissue Sarcoma

Background

The modern multimodal treatment of malignant tumors has increased disease-specific survival and decreased the burden of tumor-associated complications. The main focus of palliative surgery is not based primarily on quantitative success parameters of tumor response but is instead mainly on the question of quality of life.

Aim

The current study was conducted to analyze the clinical and oncological outcomes of palliative patients with soft tissue sarcoma.

Design

Of 309 patients with extra-abdominal high-grade soft tissue sarcoma treated between August 2012 and December 2014, our retrospective analysis revealed 33 palliative patients for this study. All patients were evaluated and managed by a multidisciplinary team with expertise and experience in sarcoma treatment. The survival analysis was made using the Kaplan-Meier method.

Results

The main sarcoma symptoms were pain (27.3%) and ulcerated tumors or shortly before ulceration (24.2%). Thirteen patients (39.4%) were operated on with negative margins, 15 (45.5%) with positive margins, 2 with tumor debulking (6.1%), and 3 patients (9.1%) were treated only with palliative hyperthermic isolated limb perfusion. Ten pedicle flaps were performed after sarcoma resection. The median operation time was 85 minutes (range, 37-216 minutes). The median hospitalization stay was 9.5 days (range, 3-27 days). No patients died during hospitalization. Twelve-month disease-free survival was 48.5% (95% confidence interval: 45.4-51.6).

Conclusions

Palliative surgery of metastatic or advanced soft tissue sarcoma can improve the wound care and quality of life. Closed noninfected wounds enable further treatment options, such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and radiotherapy. This surgery should be considered during the discussion on interdisciplinary tumor boards.

Multi-institutional study of peritoneal sarcomatosis from uterine sarcoma treated with cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy

OBJECTIVE

Uterine sarcoma (US) is a rare tumor representing 1% of female genital tract malignancies. Peritoneal sarcomatosis (PS) after US, diminishes median overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) with cytoreductive surgery (CRS) alone, with or without systemic chemotherapy is <1 year and 6 months, respectively. A multi-institutional review of PS from US was conducted to evaluate CRS and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) and effects on survival outcomes.

METHODS

A retrospective review of 36 patients from 7 specialized international centers was performed. Selection criteria included PS of uterine origin with CRS/HIPEC treatment. Clinical data were analyzed. OS and PFS were estimated with Kaplan-Meier method.

RESULTS

Thirty-six patients underwent a total 38 HIPEC procedures performed from 2005 to 2014; 35 previous treatment and 1 primary treatment. Twenty-nine (81%) LMS patients, 3 (8%) endometrial stromal sarcoma (ESS), 3 (8%) adeneosarcoma (AS), and 1 (3%) categorized as other. Median PCI was 16 (range: 2-39), 10 patients had PCI ≥20. Thirty-four patients (94%) had complete cytoreduction (CC 0-1), 19 patients recurred. CRS/HIPEC OS at 1, 3, and 5-years was 75%, 53%, and 32% respectively, with median OS of 37 months (CI 95%: 20-54). PFS in 32 patients with CC at 1, 3, and 5-years was 67%, 32% and 32%, respectively with median PFS of 18.9 months (CI 95%: 6.7-31).

CONCLUSIONS

CRS/HIPEC is a promising treatment modality for patients with PS. Histological subtype may influence survival. A global prospective registry of patients to further assess the efficacy of CRS/HIPEC is needed.

Surgical management of soft tissue sarcomas: extremity sarcomas

Wide surgical resection is the recommended treatment for extremity soft tissue sarcomas. Chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy may improve local control, but with marginal effect on overall survival. Advanced reconstructive techniques and multidisciplinary care, including plastic surgery, may allow a higher rate of limb salvage. This report focuses on surgical and reconstructive aspects in the multimodality care of extremity sarcomas.