The effect of radiation or chemotherapy on the local recurrence, overall survival, and distant metastasis in patients with myxofibrosarcoma: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Management of myxofibrosarcoma (MFS) is widely debated, and there is no consensus regarding the effect of adjuvant therapies on local recurrence (LR), distant metastasis (DM), or overall survival (OS). This study aims to determine the effect of adjuvant therapies on the aforementioned outcomes in patients with MFS.

METHODS

We conducted a systematic review via Medline, PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane, Embase, and Google Scholar. Therapeutic studies that reported LR, DM, and OS following adjuvant therapies in patients with MFS were included. Statistical analysis and creation of hazard ratios were performed using Revman 5.3 (Cochrane Collaboration).

RESULTS

We identified 301 studies, 10 of which were included in the final analysis. Neither chemotherapy nor radiation affected the rate of LR (p = 0.73 and 0.17, respectively) or OS (p = 0.97 and 0.27, respectively). Chemotherapy was significantly associated with lower rates of DM (p = 0.03); however, there was no association between radiation and DM (p = 0.67).

CONCLUSION

There is a lack of consensus regarding the effect of neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapies on LR, DM, and OS in patients with MFS. Our systematic review found that radiation and chemotherapy were not significantly associated with OS or LR in patients with MFS. However, we identified a significant association between chemotherapy and lower rates of DM.