Primary colorectal sarcoma. A retrospective review and prognostic factor study of 50 consecutive patients
S. Meijer, T. Peretz, J. J. Gaynor, C. Tan, S. I. Hajdu and M. F. Brennan
Department of Surgery, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY.
Fifty patients were admitted to Memorial Hospital, Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center, New York, NY, with primary colorectal sarcoma between 1948
and 1987. Thirty-one patients (62%) presented with a high-grade tumor, 37
patients (74%) with a tumor larger than 5 cm, and 12 patients (24%) with
metastasis. The median survival of the whole group was 33 months, and the
median survival of patients who underwent curative operation was 174
months. Nineteen of 32 patients who underwent curative operation were
observed to develop distant metastasis after 3 to 209 months. The dominant
sites of metastatic disease were the liver and peritoneal cavity. In a
multivariable analysis, noncurative treatment and high-grade tumor were the
only prognostic factors unfavorably affecting tumor-related mortality. If
the type of treatment received was not considered, presentation with
metastatic disease and a high-grade tumor were the two unfavorable
characteristics that had independent prognostic value. Patients with a
tumor that was larger than 5 cm or that was located in the colon had a
greater likelihood of having a palliative procedure or high-grade tumor.
