[Surgical treatment of malignant soft tissue tumors]

The ultimate survival of patients with soft tissue sarcoma is determined by a number of factors. Radical removal by adequate surgery is one of the most important factors together with early treatment and chemotherapy. We usually select curative wide resection, amputation, or resection after radiotherapy as forms of radical surgery for soft tissue sarcomas according to each clinical stage. The method of curative wide resection is based on biological barrier effects. In this report we discuss the operative results obtained in 148 cases of soft tissue sarcoma which we have treated over the past ten years, and also discuss the causes of recurrence after radical operation. Among 55 primary NoMo which were treated by the curative wide resection cases, the recurrence rate was 5.5%, the metastatic rate was 21.8%, and 5-year survival was 79.3%. These results were better than those for 30 recurrent and additional NoMo cases. Of cases involving the extremities, 81% were controlled by limb-saving operations.