Radiotherapy Treatment Linked With Better Survival in Soft-tissue Sarcoma

Treatment with radiotherapy (RT) may be associated with better overall and disease-specific survival compared to surgery alone in patients with soft-tissue sarcoma, according to a study published in Anticancer Research.¹

Researchers led by Noah Yuen, MD, of the UC Davis School of Medicine in Sacramento, CA, looked at 15 380 patients with non-metastatic soft-tissue sarcoma through the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program database, assessing for predictors of overall and disease-specific survival.

“Given the immune-mediated mechanisms of RT, we hypothesized that age would affect response to RT in patients with soft-tissue sarcoma undergoing surgery,” the authors noted.

They found that RT was associated with improved overall and disease-specific survival compared to surgery alone.

Upon multivariate analysis, the researchers also found that older patients were found to have significant improvements in overall survival following RT while younger patients did not. Similar results were found with regard to disease-specific survival among older patients with leiomyosarcoma, myxoid liposarcoma, and sarcoma not otherwise specified compared to younger patients.

“Among patients with soft-tissue sarcoma undergoing surgery, age appears to impact oncological outcomes after RT,” the authors concluded.

Reference

1. Yuen NK, Li C, Monjazeb AM, et al. Older age modifies oncologic outcome following radiotherapy in soft-tissue sarcoma: a subtype-specific SEER analysis. Anticancer Res. 2016;36(4):1745-1750.