Survival of adult patients with cancer of soft tissues or bone in Europe. EUROCARE Working Group.

Using data from the EUROCARE II database, relative survival rates for Europe were studied for adult patients with soft tissue sarcomas (STS) and bone cancers separately. Altogether 2,151 bone cancers and 5,845 STS were included. Survival analysis was carried out for each gender and the ratio between observed and expected survival calculated. One-year relative survival for bone cancer was 65% in men and 71% in women, and 5-year relative survival 45% in men and 51% in women. For STS 1-year relative survival was 78% for men and 79% for women and 5-year relative survival was 59% for both sexes. The variation in relative survival for bone cancer between countries was substantial, with the lowest rates seen in the Eastern countries. Denmark had the lowest rates of the Nordic countries, similar to those of Scotland. The variation in survival rates for STS was less pronounced, but still rates tended to be lower in Eastern European countries. The present analysis was carried out in the subset of European STS excluding visceral STS. To assess fully the international variation in survival a review of STS based on reported sarcoma morphology must be carried out.