[Primary retroperitoneal tumor--an analysis of 303 cases]

Primary retroperitoneal tumor (PRT) is of a heterogeneous group of neoplasms of mesenchymal origin. From April 1964 through April 1992, 303 PRT cases were treated. Of the 288 cases with histological confirmation, 197 suffered from malignant tumors and 91 were benign. Since the PRT patients were usually symptomless, diagnosis was made late in the majority of patients. It resulted in low radical resection rate in both the malignant (36.9%) and the benign (84.6%) PRT owing to invasion to adjacent organs. The tumor recurrence rate was also high, being 74.2% for the malignant and 11.7% for the benign tumors. The overall 2-, 5-, and 10-year survival rates in the patients with malignant tumors were 55.3%, 19.5%, and 9.8%, respectively. The results of treatment were dependent primarily on completeness of tumor resection. Adjuvant radiotherapy could improve the survival rates but adjuvant chemotherapy did not help. In patients with tumor recurrence, operation remained to be the treatment of choice. If complete resection was impossible, the alternative was debulking operation followed by radiotherapy.