Background: Clinicopathologic features, treatment, and results are reported for 95 tendosynovial sarcomas identified from a prospective sarcoma data base established at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in 1982.
Methods: Eighty-five patients had definitive treatment of the primary tumor at MSKCC: Epithelial sarcomas were excluded.
Results: The local recurrence rate was 18%. Survival rates were not influenced by either the method of local treatment or the use of chemotherapy. The overall actuarial survival rate was 59% at 5 years (median, 92 months). For 25 patients who had resection of pulmonary metastases, the 5-year actuarial survival rate was 43% (median, 22 months) from the time of first thoracotomy. Sex, age, tumor site, and histologic subtype (monophasic versus biphasic) were not significant predictors of survival rates. Regional lymph node metastasis occurred in 3%. The incidence of distant metastasis was 49%, with an associated 5-year survival rate of 31% (median, 33 months). Tumor size was a highly significant prognostic feature, with 5-year survival rates of 86% for patients with tumors smaller than 5 cm and 22% for those with tumors larger than 10 cm (P less than 0.00001).
Conclusions: Improvement of treatment results for tendosynovial sarcoma will require effective new systemic adjuvant therapeutic strategies.