No abstract

Head and neck represent a very critical anatomical site for STS. Achievement of local disease control appears to be crucial, since even LR could be a life-threatening event.

Primary tumor macroscopic features seem to correlate to different local aggressiveness and failure patterns. Better prognosis is associated with single localized disease stage and no occurrence of locoregional spread.

IVC resection is safe and well tolerated in RSTS patients. The need for vascular reconstruction has to be assessed according to preoperative imaging, intraoperative findings, and extent of resection. The specific role of banked venous homografts needs to be investigated in larger studies.

Prognosis of ASPS is basically related to the characteristics of the disease and the quality of surgery. Overall, the occurrence of distant metastases is quite common, with a typical indolent course. New agents are eagerly needed to complement surgery to eradicate this disease.

No abstract

3.

Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP) is a rare and indolent cutaneous sarcoma. At times, a fibrosarcomatous transformation marked by a more aggressive clinical behavior may be present. We investigated the natural history and the molecular bases of progression from classic DFSP to the fibrosarcomatous form (FS-DFSP), looking, retrospectively, at the outcome of all patients affected by primary DFSP treated at our institution from 1993 to 2012 and analyzing the molecular profile of 5 DFSPs and 5 FS-DFSPs by an integrated genomics approach (whole transcriptome sequencing, copy number analysis, FISH, qRT-PCR, IHC). The presence of fibrosarcomatous features was identified in 20 (7.6%) patients out of 263 DFSP. All cases were treated with macroscopic complete surgery. A local relapse occurred in 4 of 23 patients who received a microscopic marginal surgery (2 classic DFSP, 2 FS-DFSP), while metastasis affected 2 patients, both FS-DFSP (10% of FS-DFSP), being the first event. DFSP evolution to FS-DFSP was paralleled by a transcriptional reprogramming. The recurrent loss of chromosome 22q appeared to contribute to this phenomenon by promoting the expression of epigenetic regulators, such as EZH2. Loss of the p16/CDKN2A/INK4A locus at 9p was also observed in two FS-DFSP metastatic cases.Implications: FS-DFSP is a rare subgroup among DFSP, with a 10% metastatic risk, that was independent from local recurrence and that was not observed in DFSP, that were all cured by wide surgery. Chromosome 22q deletion might play a role in FS-DFSP, and p16 loss may convey a poor outcome. EZH2 dysregulation was also found and represents a druggable target.