11563 Background: Soft tissue sarcoma (STS) and its treatments frequently result in substantial physical morbidity, leading to impaired function and reduced quality of life. Rehabilitation can improve outcomes, yet real-world utilization and effectiveness in this population remain poorly understood. This study describes outpatient rehabilitation service use among adults with STS and examines changes in physical function and quality-of-life outcomes. Methods: Electronic medical record data from outpatient rehabilitation encounters were retrospectively analyzed for adults with a STS diagnosis (identified by ICD code) who completed ≥2 visits and had pre- and post-treatment outcome measures available. Rehabilitation characteristics were examined descriptively, including visits, care duration, service type, and treatment indications (identified by ICD code). PROMIS-Physical function (PF) was the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes were PROMIS-Global physical health (GPH), -Ability to participate in social roles and activities (SRA), and -Global mental health (GMH). Mixed-effect models assessed change in T-scores, adjusting for covariates (age, visits per week, care duration) and accounting for within-subject correlation. Estimated marginal (EM) means are reported. Change scores were compared to the established minimal important change (MIC, 2 points) to determine clinical relevance. Results: A total of 151 patients met inclusion criteria (mean age 56.0±16.7 years; 57% female). Most received physical therapy (86.1%), with fewer receiving occupational therapy (13.2%). The median episode of care was 8.3 weeks (IQR 4.3–16.0), with a mean of 1.6± 0.7 visits per week. Common treatment indications included pain (37.9%), weakness/deconditioning (35.8%), gait/balance (27.5%), followed by lymphedema (8.5%), fatigue (5.9%), wound/post-surgery care (5.5%), and neuropathy (3.1%). Significant improvements were observed in PF (+2.48, SE: 0.57), GPH (+2.64, SE: 0.50), and SRA (+2.64, SE: 0.57) (p<.001), each surpassing the MIC. No significant change was observed in GMH (-0.39, SE:0.48, p=.419). Conclusions: In this real-world cohort of adults with STS, outpatient rehabilitation averaged 8 weeks of care and 1-2 visits per week, most commonly addressing pain, weakness, and gait/balance deficits. Significant and clinically meaningful improvements were observed in physical function and the physical and social aspects of quality of life; mental health was not significantly affected. These findings support the role of rehabilitation as an important component of multidisciplinary sarcoma care and underscore the need for complementary strategies to address psychosocial outcomes. PROMIS T-scores, EM mean (SE). Outcome Pre Post PF 36.26 (0.50) 38.74 (0.57) GPH 39.44 (0.52) 42.08 (0.56) SRA 43.17 (0.56) 45.82 (0.65) GMH 47.40 (0.60) 47.02 (0.63)
Wood et al. (Wed,) studied this question.