Chemotherapy of soft tissue sarcomas in the extremities.

A retrospective study on chemotherapy against soft-tissue sarcomas in the extremities was carried out on 98 patients. The local recurrence rate was 10.3% with intensive chemotherapy in post-1980 patients with high-grade sarcomas but 46.7% without chemotherapy--a fairly significant difference (P less than 0.01). The survival rate was significantly higher with intensive chemotherapy in post-1980 patients with high-grade sarcomas. Thus, intensive chemotherapy based on a new protocol should be given in cases of high-grade sarcoma. Considering surgical margin, the local recurrence rate was 33.3% in post-1980 cases inadequately operated upon but 8.6% in those adequately operated upon, which shows a significant difference (P less than 0.05).