A national survey of the current management of nonmalignant lipomatous tumours and a proposal for unified UK guidelines for practice

Abstract

Although there exists clear guidance to determine which lipomatous lesions should be referred to a sarcoma multidisciplinary team (MDT) for discussion, subsequent guidelines for management advice are only focused on malignant lesions. This study aimed to address the management of benign and intermediate lipomatous lesions with reference to the available literature, precedent from 15 of the 17 UK sarcoma MDTs, and local experience.

Fifteen mock cases were presented to each MDT to determine local management pathways. This revealed significant heterogeneity within the management of these benign and intermediate lipomatous lesions across the UK. After combining this data with the available evidence in the literature, we developed recommendations for management of these lesions with the aim to reduce national variability. We propose the first set of national management guidelines specific to benign lipomatous lesions, which stratifies resources according to lipomatous tumour type.