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PURPOSE: To determine whether treatment-induced pathologic necrosis correlates with local recurrence and overall survival in patients who receive neoadjuvant therapy for high-grade extremity soft tissue sarcomas. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Four hundred ninety-six patients with intermediate- to high-grade extremity soft tissue sarcomas received protocol neoadjuvant therapy. All patients underwent surgical resection after neoadjuvant therapy and had pathologic assessment of tumor necrosis in the resected specimens. RESULTS: The 5- and 10-year local recurrence rates for patients with > or = 95% pathologic necrosis were significantly lower (6% and 11%, respectively) than the local recurrence rates for patients with less than 95% pathologic necrosis (17% and 23%, respectively). The 5- and 10-year survival rates for the patients with > or = 95% pathologic necrosis were significantly higher (80% and 71%, respectively) than the survival rates for the patients with less than 95% pathologic necrosis (62% and 55%, respectively). Patients with less than 95% pathologic necrosis were 2.51 times more likely to develop a local recurrence and 1.86 times more likely to die of their disease as compared with patients with > or = 95% pathologic necrosis. The percentage of patients who achieved > or /= 95% pathologic necrosis increased to 48% with the addition of ifosfamide as compared with 13% of the patients in all the other protocols combined. CONCLUSION: Treatment-induced pathologic necrosis is an independent predictor of both local recurrence and overall survival in patients who receive neoadjuvant therapy for high-grade extremity soft tissue sarcomas. A complete pathologic response (> or = 95% pathologic necrosis) correlated with a significantly lower rate of local recurrence and improved overall survival.
Eilber et al. (Sun,) studied this question.