Epidemiology and survivorship of soft tissue sarcomas in adults: a national cancer database report

The National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) of the American College of Surgeons gather demographic and survival data on ~70% of cancers in the USA. We wanted to investigate the demographic and survivorship data on this potentially more representative cohort of patients with soft tissue sarcomas. We selected 34 of the most commonly encountered soft tissue sarcomas reported to the NCDB, provided that each entity contained a minimum of 50 cases. This report summarizes the demographic and survivorship data on 63,714 patients with these 34 histologically distinct soft tissue sarcomas reported to the NCDB from 1998 to 2010. The overall survivorships of these sarcomas were near the lower limits of many prior reports due to the all-inclusive, minimally biased inclusion criteria. The overall best prognosis was Dermatofibrosarcoma NOS (not otherwise specified). (5-year survivorship 92%). The worst prognosis was Dedifferentiated Chondrosarcoma (5-year survivorship 19%). New observations included Biphasic Synovial Sarcoma demonstrating a better 5-year survivorship (65%) compared to spindle-cell synovial sarcoma (56%, P < 0.031) and Synovial Sarcoma, NOS (52%, P < 0.001). The demographic and 2- and 5-year survivorship data for all 34 soft tissue sarcomas are presented herein. This extent of demographic and survival data in soft tissue sarcomas is unprecedented. Because of the large number of cases and the inclusive nature of the NCDB, without restriction to certain stages, categories, or treatments, it is less subject to selection bias. Therefore, these data are thought to be more reflective of the true overall prognosis given the current management of sarcoma across the NCDB contributing sites.