Treatment results of hand and foot soft tissue sarcomas in Moscow oncology hospital № 62 of the Moscow health department

Introduction: Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) of the distal extremities are a rare heterogeneous group of malignant mesenchymal tissue tumors, and the publications are extremely limited. They require a special approach because of their small size and functional significance of the areas in which they are located.

The aim of our research was to analyze the clinical and morphological characteristics of hand and foot soft tissue sarcomas and to evaluate the results of treatment depending on various factors.

Materials and methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of clinical observations of 50 patients with hand and foot soft tissue sarcomas who were examined and treated from 2004 to 2023 at the Moscow Oncology Hospital № 62.

Results: 50 patients with soft tissue sarcomas of the hand and foot were included in this study. There were 24 men and 26 women with a mean age of 45 years. Of the 50 sarcomas, 12 were localized on the hands and 36-on the feet. The commonest subtypes were epithelioid sarcoma in the hand and synovial sarcoma in the foot. The 5-year overall survival (OS) was 55.9%. There were no significant differences in OS or progression-free survival (PFS) among patients treated at a general hospital. 5-year OS in the group of the phalanx sarcoma was significantly higher (p = 0.025). Phalanx sarcomas were more often 5 cm or smaller in size (p = 0.007), but larger tumor size (> 5 cm) was not associated with lower survival. OS significantly decreased in proportion to increasing stage.

Conclusion: Most hand and foot soft tissue sarcomas were less than 5 cm in size, which is indicating that it should not be used as a diagnostic threshold in the distal extremity region. Five-year OS in patients with soft tissue sarcomas of the phalanges is higher than in patients with sarcomas of more proximal localizations.

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