Ewing's sarcoma of the pelvis - Long-term survival and functional outcome

Fifty patients with Ewing's sarcoma of the pelvis were treated using a mult idisciplinary approach; followup of surviving patients averaged 137 months (range, 40-276 months). The addition of surgical resection to the multidisc iplinary treatment for all patients was associated with improved survival c ompared with survival of patients treated with chemotherapy and radiation t herapy alone; the addition of surgery to the treatment regimen of 37 patien ts without metastases also was associated with improved survival. There wer e no significant differences between the surgical and nonsurgical groups in terms of tumor size, stage of disease, patient age, duration of symptoms b efore diagnosis, or anatomic site, Surgery was used more often in recently treated patients, but the year of diagnosis and treatment did not significa ntly affect overall survival, secondary to large confidence intervals, The Short Form-36 and the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society functional evaluation i nstruments showed a superior level of function in the nonsurgical group, bu t this difference was not statistically significant, There have been many a dvances in the treatment of patients with Ewing's sarcoma during the past 3 decades, resulting in improved survival for patients with Ewing's sarcoma of the pelvis, The addition of surgery significantly improved survival and did not show a significant difference in functional outcome.