Staging and prognostic factors in soft tissue sarcoma.

Significant advances have been made in the understanding of clinicopathologic prognostic factors for soft tissue sarcoma over the past decade. Foremost among these advances is an improved ability to recognize the subset of patients at high risk for recurrent disease based on clinicopathologic data available at the time of initial presentation. Progress has also helped to elucidate specific molecular factors that have independent prognostic significance. This review outlines the updated American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system for soft tissue sarcoma and summarizes the available data on traditional clinicopathologic and molecular prognostic factors.