Short-term followup after surgical treatment of Ewing's sarcoma

Results of surgical treatment in Indian patients of Ewing's sarcoma managed with multimodality treatment with chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy are insufficient. We report a retrospective evaluation of a series of cases of Ewing's sarcoma managed with chemotherapy, surgery with or without radiotherapy.

54 patients of biopsy-proven Ewing's sarcoma of the bone, except craniofacial and vertebral bones were included. The patients having recurrence or having previous treatment were excluded from the study. Local and systemic extent of the sarcoma was defined, staged, and patients were subjected to the chemotherapy, surgery, and in some cases radiotherapy. Patients were evaluated for results of surgery with respect to complications, recurrence, and metastases at 3, 6, 9, 12, 18 and 24 months of follow-up

Average age of patients was 15.6 years (range 7-26 years); average delay in treatment was 4.1 months (1-7 months); follow-up ranged from 2 to 5 years (median 3.1 years); 14 patients (25.9%) had pulmonary metastases at their initial presentation. Twenty-one patients (38.9%) underwent resection and intercalary reconstruction with bone grafting, fixed with locking plates. Allograft was also used in 11 of these. Sixteen patients underwent resection and reconstruction with endoprosthesis, while seven patients (13.0%) underwent resection and arthrodesis. An above-knee amputation was required in 7.4% (four patients). Mesh was used for containing the graft longitudinally in five patients (femoral and tibial intercalary reconstructions) and for soft tissue attachment in two patients (hip and shoulder endoprostheses). Two patients had deep wound infection. One patient presented 1 year later with implant failure. The disease-free survival at 2 years from the time of diagnosis was 57.5% (23 out of 40) for patients without preoperative metastases and 42.9% (6 out of 14) for those with preoperative metastases. Overall, the disease-free survival at 2 years was 53.7% (29 out of 54 patients). Overall survival rate at 2 years was 61.1% (33 out of 54 patients).

Results of surgical treatment in this study are comparable with the current literature in spite of involvement of long bony segment and large soft tissue component. Intramedullary fibular autograft with morcellized cancellous autograft and allograft contained longitudinally in a mesh appears to be a good alternative with such large bone tumors.