Prognostic Value of Tumor Response in Pediatric and Adult Patients With Ewing Sarcoma

We studied histologic Ewing sarcoma (ES) tumor response at local control surgery to explore associations between histologic response and chemotherapy practice changes over time and confirm its prognostic significance in the modern era.

We reviewed clinical data for 126 patients with ES treated at Mayo Clinic from 1977 to 2022, analyzing the percentage necrosis as a prognostic factor across chemotherapy regimens (including modern interval-compressed VDC-IE).

In the historical cohort, 5-year event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) for patients with ≤5% versus greater than 5% viable tumor were 76% versus 59% (p = 0.01) and 83% versus 62% (p = 0.01). Review of 104 specimens by two pathologists identified the percentage remaining viable tumor as more reproducible than the percentage necrosis and/or fibrosis. On multivariable analysis of patients with localized disease (n = 87), pelvic tumors and greater than 5% viable tumor remained independent risk factors for poor survival (EFS: hazard ratio [HR] 3.1, p < 0.01; OS: HR 2.1, p = 0.048). The modern cohort consisted of 22 patients. No patients with tumor size less than 8 cm at diagnosis and 100% necrosis after surgery had events; four of seven with tumors greater than 8 cm had events despite 100% necrosis.

Our results validate the historical threshold of greater than 5% viable tumor with older chemotherapy regimens but not with modern interval-compressed VDC-IE. In addition, inter-rater reliability for the percentage viable is more reproducible than the percentage necrosis. Although numbers are small, tumors less than 8 cm with no viable tumor appear to be a favorable subgroup and suggest risk stratification using a combination of tumor size and any viable tumor should be evaluated in ES.