Is there no influence of local control on the rate of metastases in high-grade soft tissue sarcoma?

Article Abstract:

One of the most important biological events that determines the chance of surviving cancer is metastasis, or spread, of malignant cells to other parts of the body. Little is known, however, about the factors which relate to metastasis. Local recurrence, or the recurrence of cancer at the primary (original) site after treatment, may correlate with metastasis. It is impossible to infer a causal relationship from this observation, since metastatic cells may have begun to spread before treatment was initiated. To learn more about the relation between local recurrence and metastasis, the records of 144 patients with high-grade malignant soft tissue cancer were reviewed. Metastases occurred in 54 patients, and 48 patients had local recurrence of their cancer. Higher tumor grade, male sex, tumor necrosis, and increasing tumor size negatively affected survival. Eighty-one patients had grade 4 cancer, the highest grade; of these, 39 developed metastases. An analysis of the temporal relationship between local recurrence and metastases focused on these 39 patients. If a metastatic tumor arises from a local recurrence, the appearance of the metastasis should be later than that of a metastasis that arises from a primary tumor. This was not observed among the 39 patients studied. However, local recurrence was a statistically significant prognostic factor of tumor-related death. These results suggest that the occurrence of a metastatic tumor and local recurrence are related, most likely by intrinsic tumor characteristics, but that metastases generally arise from primary tumors. It is suggested that the type of treatment affects the probability of local recurrence, but that the prognosis is most likely to be affected primarily by intrinsic tumor characteristics and significant prognostic factors. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Causes of, Risk factors, Metastasis, Cancer invasiveness, Cancer metastasis, Sarcoma

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Malignant fibrous histiocytoma of soft tissue: a population-based epidemiologic and prognostic study of 137 patients

Article Abstract:

Despite the fact that malignant fibrous histiocytoma was only first described as a class of tumor in the early 1960s, these cancers are the most common sarcomas of soft tissue. There have been relatively few research papers published that are devoted exclusively to these cancers. Also, some of the findings of these studies are inconsistent, which may be attributed to selection bias. Since often only the larger and more serious histiocytomas are referred to major medical centers, tabulations of data on these tumors by these medical centers are not representative of the full range of the cancers that actually occur. To provide an insight into the spectrum malignant fibrous histiocytomas as they occur in the population, a population-based study of 137 patients was conducted. While the average age was 64 years, the cancer occurred in patients as young as 22 years. The annual incidence of malignant fibrous histiocytoma was 0.42 cases per 100,000 people per year. Malignant fibrous histiocytoma occurs in a variety of histologic types, and the type plays an important role in predicting survival. The majority of such cancers have a mixture of pleomorphic (many shapes) and storiform (a matted, irregular pattern) histologic types. In the present study, 83 patients had storiform or pleomorphic tumors. These types are highly malignant with a chance of metastatic disease of about 50 percent. The five-year survival rate for the storiform-pleomorphic histiocytoma was 0.5, and was strongly associated with metastasis. In contrast, the five-year survival rate for the 53 patients with the myxoid histologic type was a perfect 1.0. While some previous studies found an association between survival and locoregional recurrence, the development of local recurrence did not influence survival in this study. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Demographic aspects, Dermatofibroma

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Chromosomal rearrangements in chondromatous tumors

Article Abstract:

Chondromatous tumors are a common form of bone tumor. They originate from cartilage, and the histological grading of these tumors is sometimes unclear. To determine whether the analysis of chromosomes within chondromatous tumors could provide another method of characterizing these tumors, karyotypes, or photographic analyses of the full chromosome set, were obtained on six benign and 10 malignant tumors. Chromosomal abnormalities were observed in seven of the 10 malignant tumors and in one of six benign growths. It is difficult to ascribe particular significance to any one chromosomal change, as so many changes were observed and the changes were different in each of the tumors. A few trends were apparent, however. Structural damage to chromosome 1 was seen in five tumors, and structural damage to chromosome 6 was found in three. Interestingly, chromosome 6 was also lost from three other tumors. Chromosomes observed to be lost in at least two tumors were 6, 10, 11, 13, 18, and 22. Structural damage was observed on eight different chromosomes. The results indicate that although the observations varied widely among different tumors, the abnormalities were not completely random, either. Some researchers have suggested that one of the aspects of the transformation into a malignant cell involves loss of or damage to a chromosome which normally contains a gene that suppresses malignant growth. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Genetic aspects, Cancer, Cancer genetics, Chromosome abnormalities, Karyotypes, Chromosome deletion, Bone cancer

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