BACKGROUND.The use of adjuvant chemotherapy to treat adults with localized resectable soft‐tissue sarcoma remains controversial. The objective of this systematic review was to update the 1997 meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to reassess the efficacy of doxorubicin‐based chemotherapy with respect to recurrence and survival.METHODS.A comprehensive literature search was performed to identify RCTs of adjuvant chemotherapy for adult patients diagnosed with localized resectable soft‐tissue sarcoma. Two reviewers independently assessed eligibility and quality of the studies using a modified version of the Detsky Quality Scale. The outcome measures were local, distant, and overall recurrence and survival calculated through the fixed effect or random effect model.RESULTS.Four new eligible trials were identified allowing for a total of 18 trials representing 1953 patients to be included in the analysis. The odds ratios (OR) for local recurrence was 0.73 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.56‐0.94; P = .02) in favor of chemotherapy. For distant and overall recurrence the OR was 0.67 (95% CI 0.56‐0.82; P = .0001) in favor of chemotherapy. In terms of survival, doxorubicin alone had an OR of 0.84 (95% CI, 0.68‐1.03; P = .09), which as not statistically significant. However, the OR for doxorubicin combined with ifosfamide was 0.56 (95% CI, 0.36‐0.85; P = .01) in favor of chemotherapy.CONCLUSIONS.This updated meta‐analysis confirms the marginal efficacy of chemotherapy in localized resectable soft‐tissue sarcoma with respect to local recurrence, distant recurrence, overall recurrence, and overall survival. These benefits are further improved with the addition of ifosfamide to doxorubicin‐based regimens, but must be weighed against associated toxicities. Cancer 2008. © 2008 American Cancer Society.

Musculoskeletal infections (MSKI) remain the bane of orthopedic surgery, and result in grievous illness and inordinate costs that threaten healthcare systems. As prevention, diagnosis, and treatment has remained largely unchanged over the last 50 years, a 2nd International Consensus Meeting on Musculoskeletal Infection (ICM 2018, https://icmphilly.com) was completed. Questions pertaining to all areas of MSKI were extensively researched to prepare recommendations, which were discussed and voted on by the delegates using the Delphi methodology. The questions, including the General Assembly (GA) results, have been published (GA questions). However, as critical outcomes include: (i) incidence and cost data that substantiate the problems, and (ii) establishment of research priorities; an ICM 2018 research workgroup (RW) was assembled to accomplish these tasks. Here, we present the result of the RW consensus on the current and projected incidence of infection, and the costs per patient, for all orthopedic subspecialties, which range from 0.1% to 30%, and $17,000 to $150,000. The RW also identified the most important research questions. The Delphi methodology was utilized to initially derive four objective criteria to define a subset of the 164 GA questions that are high priority for future research. Thirty-eight questions (23% of all GA questions) achieved the requisite > 70% agreement vote, and are highlighted in this Consensus article within six thematic categories: acute versus chronic infection, host immunity, antibiotics, diagnosis, research caveats, and modifiable factors. Finally, the RW emphasizes that without appropriate funding to address these high priority research questions, a 3rd ICM on MSKI to address similar issues at greater cost is inevitable. ICM, International Consensus Meeting; MSKI, musculoskeletal infections; RW, research workgroup. * 2018 ICM RW consensus on the current and projected incidences of infection, and costs per patient, for all orthopedic subspecialties. These estimates, which were compiled from information were obtained from: (i) recent peer-reviewed publications, (ii) analysis of 2015 national administrative data using HCUPNet (https://hcupnet.ahrq.gov/#setup), and (iii) RW expertise. 998 SCHWARZ ET AL.

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Synovial sarcomas (SS) represent a unique subset of soft tissue sarcomas (STS) and account for 5–10% of all STS. Synovial sarcoma differs from other STS by the relatively young age at diagnosis and clinical presentation. Synovial sarcomas have unique genomic characteristics and are driven by a pathognomonic t(X;18) chromosomal translocation and subsequent formation of the SS18:SSX fusion oncogenes. Similar to other STS, diagnosis can be obtained from a combination of history, physical examination, magnetic resonance imaging, biopsy and subsequent pathology, immunohistochemistry and molecular analysis. Increasing size, age and tumor grade have been demonstrated to be negative predictive factors for both local disease recurrence and metastasis. Wide surgical excision remains the standard of care for definitive treatment with adjuvant radiation utilized for larger and deeper lesions. There remains controversy surrounding the role of chemotherapy in the treatment of SS and there appears to be survival benefit in certain populations. As the understanding of the molecular and immunologic characteristics of SS evolve, several potential systematic therapies have been proposed.

MLS and RCLS showed different metastatic risk but equally good local control. Radiotherapy was effective in preventing local recurrence and should be delivered as neoadjuvant. New staging strategies are to be defined to account for the unusual metastatic pattern.

Background Limb salvage surgery (LSS) with endoprosthetic replacement is the most common method of reconstruction following bone tumor resection in the adult population. The risk of a postoperative infection developing is high when compared with conventional arthroplasty and there are no appropriate guidelines for antibiotic prophylaxis. Questions/purposes We sought to answer the following questions: (1) What is the overall risk of deep infection and the causative organism in lower-extremity long-bone tumor surgery with endoprosthetic reconstruction? (2) What antibiotic regimens are used with endoprosthetic reconstruction? (3) Is there a correlation between infection and either duration of postoperative antibiotics or sample size? Methods We conducted a systematic review of the literature for clinical studies that reported infection rates in adults with primary bony malignancies of the lower extremity treated with surgery and endoprosthetic reconstruction. The search included articles published in English between 1980 and July 2011. Results The systematic literature review yielded 48 studies reporting on a total of 4838 patients. The overall pooled weighted infection rate for lower-extremity LSS with endoprosthetic reconstruction was approximately 10% (95% CI, 8%-11%), with the most common causative organism reported to be Gram-positive bacteria in the majority of cases. The pooled weighted infection rate was 13% after short-term postoperative antibiotics and 8% after long-term postoperative antibiotics. There was no correlation between sample size and infection rate. Conclusions Infection rates of 10% are high when compared with rates for conventional arthroplasty. Our results suggest that long-term antibiotic prophylaxis decreases the risk of deep infection. However, the data should be interpreted with caution owing to the retrospective nature of the studies.

The records of 99 patients treated at one institution for osseous metastases secondary to renal cell carcinoma were reviewed. Patients were followed up for at least 24 months or until death. Survival was analyzed with respect to age, gender, disease-free interval, location of osseous metastases, number of osseous metastatic sites, resection of osseous metastases, and primary tumor resection. The mean age of the 72 men and 27 women was 60 years (range, 34-82 years) and the mean followup was 20 months (range, 2-81 months). Twenty-six patients (26%) had a solitary osseous metastasis, 47 patients (48%) had multiple osseous metastases, and 26 patients (26%) had additional visceral involvement such as the lung and brain at the time of diagnosis. In 49 patients (49%), the renal cell carcinoma was diagnosed concurrently with detection of the osseous metastasis. The presence of one osseous renal carcinoma metastasis, wide resection of the lesion, and a history of nephrectomy were identified as independent predictors of survival in patients with renal cell carcinoma. The eight patients who had wide resection of a solitary osseous metastasis in combination with a nephrectomy had a disease-specific survival rate of 100% (mean followup, 69 months; range, 24-76 months). Patients who present with these characteristics are candidates for aggressive surgical treatment with curative intent.

It is clear that treatment with denosumab only partially addresses the therapeutic need of patients with a giant cell tumor by wiping out the osteoclasts but leaving the neoplastic stromal cells proliferative.