Survival of children with soft-tissue sarcoma in Europe since 1978: results from the EUROCARE study

Soft-tissue sarcomas account for 5-8% of all childhood cancers in European countries. In the EUROCARE childhood cancer study, there were 2163 registra tions from 17 countries for soft-tissue sarcomas in patients aged 0-14 year s during 1975-1989. Of this total, three-quarters were contributed by child hood cancer registries in Germany and the UK. Age-standardised 5-year survi val rates of children diagnosed during 1985-1989 were 65% (95% confidence i nterval (CI) 56-72) for rhabdomyosarcoma, 68% (95% CI 58-77) for fibrosarco ma, 78% (95% CI: 64-87) for other specified soft-tissue sarcomas except Kap osi's and 51% (95% CI 3765) for 'unspecified' soft-tissue sarcomas. Surviva l rates increased steadily throughout the 12-year study period for all soft -tissue sarcomas combined, but the increase took place predominantly in the early 1980s for rhabdomyosarcoma. Improvements in survival which had previ ously been reported from individual countries and in clinical series are co nfirmed as having taken place throughout much of Europe on a population bas is. In a supplementary analysis, there was little indication of a further i mprovement during 1990-1992. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights rese rved.