[Extremity soft tissue sarcoma: does surgical margin impact survival?]

Objective: To define the impact of surgical margins on local recurrence (LR), distant recurrence (DR) and overall survival (OS) in patients with soft tissue sarcomas of the extremities (eSTS).

Method: Patients treated for a primary eSTS from 2006 to 2010 were analyzed. Rates of local recurrence, distant recurrence, and overall survival were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. The association of possible prognostic factors such as local recurrence, metastasis, and survival was performed using the Cox proportional hazards model.

Results: 128 patients were analyzed. The surgical margins were positive (R1 resection) in 22.7% and negative in 77.3%. The LR was 27%, the DR was 13% (70% of the population was free of disease at 5 years) and OS at 5 years was 84%. The prognostic factors for OS at 5 years were clinical stage, type and histological grade. The surgical margin had no impact on OS.

Conclusions: Although an adequate oncological resection cannot be underestimated, this should be considered in the decision of the optimal treatment of eSTS when amputation or significant functional impairment of the limb is required to obtain negative surgical margins.