[Peripheral soft tissue sarcomas. A retrospective study on 90 primary treatment patients]

Between 1960 and 1982, 90 patients treated primarily for peripheral soft tissue sarcomas received a postoperative irradiation at the Irradiation Department of the Städtische Krankenhaus Passau. Five patients (6%) were inoperable for internistic reasons and were treated only by radiotherapy. The local recurrence rate after combined therapy was 26%. 44% of the patients (40/90) developed metastases, preponderantly in the lung and within the first year (70% each). The age-corrected survival rate was 63% after five years and 43% after ten years in 79 patients with complete postoperative irradiation. Important prognostic factors are the degree of malignancy (five-year survival times of 57 patients: almost 90% for G1 tumors, 50% for G2 tumors, and 17% for G3 tumors, statistically significant) as well as the completeness of surgery. It is shown by the available results that conservative surgical interventions combined with radiotherapy are not less effective than more radical operations.