Long-term outcomes of patients with soft tissue sarcoma of the chest wall: Analysis of the prognostic significance of microscopic margins

Abstract

Data on prognostic factors and treatment outcomes for chest wall soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are sparse. Wide resections with negative margins are the mainstay of therapy, but the prognostic impact of surgical margins remains controversial. The purpose of the present study was to determine the significance of microscopic margins through a long-term follow-up. The associations between local recurrence-free survival (LRFS), overall survival (OS) and potential prognostic factors were retrospectively assessed in a consecutive series of 110 patients who were suitable for surgical treatment with curative intent. Potential prognostic factors were assessed using univariate and multivariate analyses. The median follow-up time following primary diagnosis was 9.6 years [95% confidence interval (CI), 7.2–10.5]. In the entire cohort, the 5-year estimates of the OS and LRFS rates were 66.0% (95% CI, 55.9–74.3) and 60.6% (95% CI, 50.3–69.4), respectively. A total of 27 patients (24.5%) developed distant metastases with a median survival time of 0.9 years following the diagnosis of metastasis. Surgical margins attained at the initial resection and eventual re-excisions significantly influenced OS in univariate analysis (5-year OS, R0 69.9% vs. R1/R2 38.5%; P=0.046), but this failed to reach statistical significance in the multivariate analysis. In the multivariate analysis, significant adverse prognostic features of LRFS included angiosarcoma subtype, G2 and G3 histology. For OS, the only independent significant predictors were age >50 years, tumor size >5 cm, angiosarcoma subtype and G3 histology. The results of the present study suggest that tumor biology, as reflected by the histological grade, influences the final outcome in patients with chest wall STS. Surgical margins failed to reach statistical significance in multivariate analysis as they demonstrated a dependency towards the independent predictors of OS. Subsequently, a positive margin status may be a result rather than a cause of biological aggressiveness, and it may not influence the outcome directly.

The Impact of Surgical Margins and Adjuvant Radiotherapy in Patients with Undifferentiated Pleomorphic Sarcomas of the Extremities: A Single-Institutional Analysis of 192 Patients

“…This finding would provide a more aggressive surgical approach in order to attain wider negative margins. Past studies of our institution which have determined the influence of negative margin widths in STS, in general, could not establish a relationship between margin widths and outcome [24,25]. However, analyses of STS subsets such as angiosarcoma and dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans revealed that margin widths may indeed have an impact on specific entities [26][27][28].…”

Treatment outcome of chest wall soft tissue sarcomas: Analysis of prognostic factors

“…In the present study, however, the number of grade 1 tumors was very small, so our analysis was underpowered to detect a significant association between tumor grade and survival. In the six previous studies, the average 5‐year OS rate was 72.5% (range, 57%‐89%). A strength of our study is the inclusion of the greatest percentage of high‐grade sarcoma cases (such as MPNSTs) that has been reported to date.…”

IGF2BP3 (IMP3) expression in angiosarcoma, epithelioid hemangioendothelioma, and benign vascular lesions

“…The tumor cells are immunohistochemically positive for vascular markers such as CD31, CD34, ERG, and podoplanin [10]. Surgery is the most common approach to treat angiosarcoma, and achieving surgically negative margins improves prognosis [11,12]. Therefore, accurate evaluation of surgical margins is essential for management of cutaneous angiosarcoma patients.…”