Preoperative radiation therapy of high malignancy grade soft tissue sarcoma. A preliminary investigation

Twenty-three patients with high malignancy grade soft tissue sarcoma received irradiation (about 40 Gy) followed by surgery. The follow-up time was 62 months or more in all patients. The local recurrence rate was 9 per cent (2/23). One of the patients was reoperated and is living free of disease, giving a local control rate of 95 per cent. Thirty per cent (7/23) of the cases developed distant metastases and died of the disease. Delayed wound healing was observed in 2 cases which was possibly due to the radiation therapy. Since surgery was regarded non-radical in 5 cases, the local control obtained by the combined radiation therapy and surgery is good and should be the subject for further investigations.