Centralization of soft tissue sarcoma. Status in Sweden in 1982.

We analyzed the management of all the patients with soft tissue sarcoma located in the trunk and extremities in Sweden in 1982. The total fraction of patients referred to musculoskeletal tumor centers for definitive treatment was 0.6. In more than four fifths of the patients operated on at the centers, surgery was performed with a wide or radical margin compared with one fifth of the patients treated at other hospitals. In our center specifically, 10 patients with soft tissue lesions that turned out to be benign were referred per every unoperated on sarcoma patient. The treatment of soft tissue sarcomas outside tumor centers is less than optimal, and centralization is associated with substantially increased referral of patients with benign tumors to catch the majority of soft tissue sarcomas in the virgin state. Information to peripheral hospitals about indications for referral of patients with soft tissue lesions has been effective in our region.