Jam. Vanunnik et al., GRADING OF SOFT-TISSUE SARCOMAS - EXPERIENCE OF THE EORTC SOFT-TISSUEAND BONE SARCOMA GROUP, European journal of cancer, 29A(15), 1993, pp. 2089-2093
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.