Cancer
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Ten of 16 consecutive patients (63%) with Stages III-IVA soft tissue sarcoma presenting between 1975 and 1978 and treated with surgery, radiotherapy and adjuvant chemotherapy have remained disease-free with a median follow-up of three years (range, 28-68 months). Survival at three years was 86%. However, in the American Joint Committee (AJC) soft tissue sarcoma staging system published in 1977, Grade 3 soft tissue sarcomas were associated with a three-year survival of 35% and almost 90% of the patients destined to fail did so within three years of diagnosis (8). ⋯ Cases survived significantly longer than controls at three years (p less than 0.001) and, in fact, disease-free survival of cases (63%) was superior to overall survival of controls (27%) (p less than 0.01). Our data support the conclusion that patients with high-grade soft tissue sarcoma treated by an experienced multimodality team have a three-year disease-free survival of approximately 63%. The impact of each component of multimodality therapy cannot be determined, and improved survival may result, in addition, from improved diagnostic and staging techniques currently available.