Management strategies of sarcomas of the ankle and foot

Purpose: To evaluate the management and outcomes of 40 patients treated at the Massachusetts General Hospital between 1974 and September 1996 for soft tissue sarcomas of the foot or ankle. Materials and Methods: Seventy seven percent of patients had AJCC stage II or III disease. Primary disease was treated in 28 patients while recurrent disease was addressed in 12. The mean tumor size was 4.6 cm with a median tumor size of 4.0 cm, (range 1 to 15 cm). Seventeen patients were treated with surgery followed by radiation therapy for primary or recurrent disease. Preoperative radiation therapy was employed in 15 patients, 5 of whom received additional postoperative radiation therapy for close or positive margins. Six patients received radiation treatment alone. Amputations were performed in 5 patients. Two amputations were performed due to inadequate surgical margins obtained at the time of resection. Three amputations were performed due to local failure. The median preoperative radiation dose was 48 Gy. The median total dose was 59 Gy (range 22 Gy to 70 Gy). Chemotherapy was incorporated in the therapy of 6 patients. Results: After a mean follow-up of 4.9 years, 28 (70%) patients remain without evidence of disease. Four patients have died of disease. Five patients have died of intercurrent disease or another cancer. Three patients remain alive with disease. There were 5 isolated local failures, 4 distant failures and 1 combined local and distant failure. Of the 5 patients with isolated local failures, 3 were treated with radiation alone. The most common site of distant failure was the lung. Actuarial local control rates are 80% at 5 and 10 years in this population. Actuarial overall survival at 5 and 10 years are 83% and 69% respectively. Wound healing difficulties occurred in 13 patients. Seven patients suffered a wound dehiscence. Five patients required therapy for wound dehiscence and infection and one patient was treated for wound infection only. In six patients, these complications necessitated further surgery. Conclusions: Sarcomas of the foot and ankle present a difficult management problem. Surgeons are often limited in their ability to obtain the wide resection margins standard in sarcoma care. Despite this limitation, the current data suggests that combined modality therapy with surgery and radiation offers an effective treatment strategy for sarcomas of the foot and ankle with local control rates and overall survival rates similar to those obtained in treating sarcomas elsewhere in the body. Patients with sarcomas of the foot or ankle should be offered treatment with a combination of radiation and conservative surgery whenever possible