Primary sarcoma of the liver in the adult. Report of five surgically treated patients.

During the 5-year period between 1988 and 1989, five patients with primary sarcomas of the liver underwent surgery. Since the patients presented in an early stage of the tumor, all the sarcomas were resectable, in three cases with wide margins (R-0 resection). Five histological types were detected: malignant hemangiopericytoma, malignant fibrous histiocytoma, hemangiosarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, and embryonal sarcoma. Two patients with high-grade sarcomas received adjuvant chemotherapy. The follow-up was favorable in three patients with R-0 resections (two had adjuvant chemotherapy). They were still alive, with no evidence of disease 30, 46, and 63 months after the diagnosis. The two other patients had to be reoperated on for local recurrences. Both died of their tumor disease, 30 and 35 months after the initial diagnosis. Extensive chemotherapy in one of these cases failed to arrest tumor progression. Hence, liver resection with wide margins is a very important measure in such cases.