The management of pelvic chondrosarcoma in Japan. Japanese Musculo-Skeletal Oncology Group.

A review of 135 patients with pelvic chondrosarcoma who had been treated at 58 institutions in Japan between 1989 and 1998. In this series ablative surgery was necessary in 14 patients, and a limb salvage procedure performed in 121 patients. The surgical margins were "intra-lesional" in 27 patients, "marginal" in 30, "wide" in 77 and "unspecified" in 1. Local recurrence occurred in 33 patients and distant metastases in 25. Post-operative infection occurred in 25 patients. Revision was performed in 10 patients. The oncological outcome was "disease free" in 92 patients, "alive with disease" in 17 and "dead because of the disease" in 26. The cumulative prospective 10-year survival rate for all patients was 65%. The 6 statistically significant prognostic factors that determined the outcome were: - surgical stage, site of tumour, size of tumour, surgical margin, functional mobility and activity level after surgery. Excision of the tumour with a wide margin, or with a wide margin with partly marginal areas, and subsequent stable reconstruction are essential for improving the results of pelvic chondrosarcoma treatment.