GRADING OF SOFT-TISSUE SARCOMAS - EXPERIENCE OF THE EORTC SOFT-TISSUEAND BONE SARCOMA GROUP

A practical grading system for soft tissue sarcomas was developed, bas ed on 282 eligible patients entered in an EORTC adjuvant clinical tria l. The primary tumours in this trial had to be adequately treated. His topathological parameters, which appeared significant in two preceding studies, were tested. These parameters were differentiation of the tu mour, presence and amount of necrosis, the presence and amount of myxo id areas and the number of mitoses. In addition, the size of the tumou r was also analysed. The quantitative data (mitotic count and size of the tumour) were not a priori grouped, but were divided into categorie s based on the results of the statistical analysis. Based on a multiva riate analysis only mitotic count, the presence or absence of necrosis and the size of the tumour were significantly correlated with the dur ation of survival or the time to distant metastases. Of these paramete rs, the mitotic count was the most important.