Prognostic factors and assessment of staging systems for head and neck soft tissue sarcomas in adults.

OBJECTIVES: The primary objectives of this study were to analyse the outcome of patients diagnosed with head and neck soft tissue sarcomas (HNSTS) and to identify relevant prognostic factors. As well as this, we compared the prognostic value of two staging systems proposed by the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC).

METHODS: From 07/1988 to 01/2008, the charts of 42 adult patients were retrospectively reviewed. Potential prognostic factors were analysed according to overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS) and disease-specific survival (DSS).

RESULTS: At 5 years, OS was 57%, DFS 47% and DSS 72%. On univariate analysis, statistically significant prognostic factors were for OS, distant or lymph node metastasis at diagnosis (p=0.032), for DFS, margins after surgery (p=0.007), for DSS, regional or distant metastasis at diagnosis (p=0.002), initial AJCC and MSKCC stage (p=0.018 and p=0.048) and margins after surgery (p=0.042). On multivariate analysis, margins remained statistically significant for DFS (p=0.039) when there was a trend with the initial AJCC stage (p=0.054) for OS. The AJCC staging system was of more prognostic value than the MSKCC staging system.

CONCLUSIONS: Achieving clear margins after surgery is vital for improved local control and the best chance of survival. Adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy were not shown to provide additional benefit. To better identify prognostic factors, it seems essential to set up national and international databases allowing multicenter registration for those patients.