Soft tissue sarcomas involving the pelvis

Background and Objectives: Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) of the true pelvis ar e rare tumors and there is little information in the literature related to pelvic STS. The purposes of this review were to understand the anatomic ext ension of these tumors to better plan surgical treatment and to determine t he outcome of these patients. Methods: Eighteen consecutive patients presenting between 1987 and 1995 wit h soft tissue sarcomas involving the true pelvis were retrospectively revie wed at minimum follow-up of 18 months. Cross-sectional imaging was reviewed for each patient to determine the anatomical location of the lesions. Results: The tumors were confined to the true pelvis in 4 patients, extende d to the retroperitoneum in three cases, and extended to the thigh in 11 pa tients. Adjuvant radiation was administered to all but 2 patients who had r eceived radiation to the region in the past and all patients underwent surg ical resection (local resection in 13 patients and hindquarter amputation i n 5 patients). Surgical resection had a high rate of morbidity and complica tions including positive resection margins in nine individuals. Of the 18 p atients, 11 died at a mean time of 15.5 (2-58) months from surgery, 4 were alive with evidence of disease at a mean time of 443 (18-68) months, and 3 were alive with no evidence of disease at a mean time of 57 (43-71) months. Conclusions: Soft tissue sarcoma of the pelvis is fortunately a rare diseas e with a high risk of local and systemic disease progression despite treatm ent with irradiation and surgical resection. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.