Abstract
The significance of lymph node sampling (LNS) on disease-specific survival (DSS) of extremity soft tissue sarcomas (STS) is unknown. We investigated the effect of LNS on DSS in child and adolescent extremity STS.
The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry was queried for patients aged <20 y with extremity STS who underwent surgery. Patient demographics were collected and analyzed.
A total of 1550 patients were included, with findings of 10-y DSS of 74% for all extremity STS and 49% for rhabdoymyosarcoma (RMS) (P < 0.005). LNS was associated with worse DSS in patients with extremity nonrhabdomyosacrcoma soft tissue sarcomas (79% versus 84%, P = 0.036). Conversely, LNS was associated with an improved DSS in patients with extremity RMS (64% versus 49%, P = 0.005).
LNS is positively associated with an improved DSS in child and adolescent extremity RMS. Multivariate analysis found no correlation between DSS and LNS in child and adolescent extremity nonrhabdomyosarcoma soft tissue sarcomas.
