Adjuvant radiotherapy with brachytherapy boost in soft tissue sarcomas

Abstract

PURPOSE: The standard primary treatment for soft tissue sarcoma (STS) is a wide surgical resection, preceded or followed by radiotherapy. Purpose of this retrospective study was to assess the efficacy of perioperative brachytherapy (BRT) plus postoperative external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) in patients with intermediate-high risk STS. MATERIAL AND METHODS: BRT delivered dose was 20 Gy. External beam radiation therapy was delivered with 3D-technique using multiple beams. The prescribed dose was 46 Gy to the PTV. Neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy (CHT) was used in patients with potentially chemosensitive histological subtypes. The primary aim of the study was to analyze overall survival (OS) and local control (LC) in a large patient population treated with surgery, perioperative BRT, and adjuvant EBRT ± CHT. Secondary objective was to identify prognostic factors for patients outcome in terms of LC, disease-free survival (DFS), and OS. RESULTS: = 0.034). CONCLUSIONS: The combination of BRT and EBRT was able to achieve satisfactory results even in a patients population with intermediate-high risk STS. Patients with recurrent or other than lower limb sited tumors show a worse LC.