Soft tissue sarcomas and military service in Vietnam: a case comparison group analysis of hospital patients

The possibility that exposure to Agent Orange or phenoxy herbicides may have increased the risk of soft tissue sarcomas has been of genuine concern to Vietnam veterans and their families. A hospital-based case comparison group study was undertaken to examine, through a comprehensive review of medical records and military personnel records, the association between previous military service in Vietnam and soft tissue sarcomas. The case group comprised 234 Vietnam-era veteran patients who served in the US military between 1964 and 1975 and were treated in one of the 172 VA hospitals between 1969 and 1983 with a diagnosis of soft tissue sarcomas. The comparison group consisted of 13,496 patients who were systematically sampled from the same Vietnam-era veteran patient population from which the cases were drawn. Military service information, in particular Vietnam service status, for each case and control patient was obtained from a review of the patient's military personnel records archived at the National Personnel Records Center in St Louis, Missouri. No significant association of soft tissue sarcomas and previous military service in Vietnam was observed: odds ratio was 0.83 with a 95% confidence interval of 0.63 to 1.09.