Prognostic factors for local control of sarcomas of the soft tissues managed by radiation and surgery.

During the past decade, local control of primary sarcomas of the extremities by radiation and conservative surgery has supplanted more radical compartmental resections or amputations. Reviews of others and our published data show that the probability of achieving local control is highly dependent on achieving negative surgical margins. Other factors, such as pathological grade and size, histopathology, and concomitant chemotherapy may also affect local control, to a much lesser extent, although these are strongly correlated with the likelihood of distant metastatic disease. Appreciation of the importance of these different prognostic factors has been fundamental to the development of the current rationale for sarcoma management.