Vascular soft-tissue sarcomas. An analysis of tumor-related mortality
M. S. Karpeh Jr, C. Caldwell, J. J. Gaynor, S. I. Hajdu and M. F. Brennan
Department of Surgery, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10021.
Between 1982 and 1990, 69 adult patients were admitted to Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center with a diagnosis of angiosarcoma,
lymphangiosarcoma, or malignant hemangiopericytoma. The existing literature
regarding sarcomas focuses on individual histologic conditions or
site-specific activity and includes pediatric patients, which makes
estimates of survival difficult. We describe the clinical course of all
vascular sarcomas, the survival without distant recurrence of patients with
vascular sarcomas, and the overall survival of patients with vascular
sarcomas. Using Cox's stepwise regression model, histologic characteristics
of the tumors, tumor grade, tumor size, and other factors were assessed to
determine their prognostic significance. Noncurative treatment and the
presence of metastases were the only two factors influencing survival.
Tumor grade approached significance. Disease recurrence was common among
curatively treated patients (37% of such patients), and more than half of
these recurrences involved distant sites. The survival of these patients
depends on complete surgical resection and is independent of individual
histologic characteristics of the tumor.
