What question did this study set out to answer?

The aim is to describe the demographics, treatment patterns, and metastatic profiles of patients with soft-tissue sarcoma at a cancer center.

March 26, 2026Open Access

Demographics, treatment patterns, and metastatic profiles of soft-tissue sarcoma patients at a high-volume cancer centre: A retrospective study

Key Points

The aim is to describe the demographics, treatment patterns, and metastatic profiles of patients with soft-tissue sarcoma at a cancer center.
Retrospective case series of histologically confirmed STS patients at Medserve–LUTH Cancer Center.
Data on demographics, histology, staging, and treatment were abstracted from electronic records.
Quality control involved re-abstraction of 10%–15% of records.
Metastatic status and site(s) were documented; descriptive statistics were analyzed using SPSS v27.
103 patients observed with a mean age of 33.8 years, predominantly young males.
Rhabdomyosarcoma was the most common subtype (51.5%); 22.3% had distant metastasis, primarily to the lungs.
59.2% received surgery, while chemotherapy was given to 58.2%, with vincristine-actinomycin-cyclophosphamide being the most common regimen.
45.6% received radiotherapy; significant portion of patients (15.5%) received no therapy due to financial barriers.

Abstract

Background: Soft-tissue sarcomas (STSs) are heterogeneous malignancies whose outcomes depend on histologic subtype, grade, and stage. We described demographics, frontline treatment patterns, and metastatic profiles of histologically confirmed STS managed at a tertiary oncology center in Lagos, Nigeria to identify the service gaps and inform quality-improvement priorities. Methods: Retrospective consecutive case series of all histologically confirmed STS seen at Medserve–LUTH Cancer Center from June 1, 2019 to December 31, 2024. Demographic, histologic, staging, and treatment data were abstracted from the electronic records; 10%–15% were re-abstracted for quality control. Metastatic status and site(s) were recorded; descriptive statistics used SPSS v27. Results: One hundred and three patients (mean age 33.8 years, standard deviation 22.6); 34 (33.0%) <18 years; 56 (54.3%) male. Rhabdomyosarcoma predominated (53/103; 51.5%), then leiomyosarcoma (14/103; 13.6%), liposarcoma (11/103; 10.7%), and angiosarcoma (11/103; 10.7%). Primary sites: Extremity 34/103 (33.0%) and head-and-neck 27/103 (26.2%). Distant metastasis was in 23 (22.3%); lung commonest (16/103; 15.5%). Multimodality care: Surgery 61 (59.2%), chemotherapy 60 (58.2%)-vincristine–actinomycin–cyclophosphamide 31.7%, doxorubicin–ifosfamide 20.0%, and radiotherapy 47 (45.6%) (three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy 53.2%, intensity-modulated radiotherapy 27.7%, and volumetric-modulated arc therapy 10.6%); mean radiotherapy dose ≈ 43.2 Gy (median 50 Gy). Sixteen (15.5%) received no cancer-directed therapy, largely for financial reasons. Conclusion: This single-center, descriptive study highlights a young, pediatric-skewed case mix with rhabdomyosarcoma over-representation, notable baseline metastatic burden and heterogeneous treatment delivery. Priorities to improve the outcomes include strengthening early detection/referral, financial protection, pathology/staging capacity and access to histology-directed therapies in similar low-resource settings and workforce training for multidisciplinary teams.

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