Primary malignant tumors of the upper extremity: retrospective analysis of one hundred twenty-six cases.

We retrospectively evaluated 126 patients with primary sarcomas of bone (45) and soft tissue (61) in the upper extremity principally to evaluate the effectiveness of the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society staging system in predicting treatment outcome and to note differences between bone and soft tissue sarcomas. Patients were followed 2 to 11 years from diagnosis. The mean survival from treatment onset was 49 months (4 to 144 months). A strong statistical relationship (p less than 0.05) between anatomic location (above/below elbow) and surgical stage (stage I/II, A/B) was demonstrated. The type of primary operation and subsequent incidence in local tumor recurrence were found to be statistically different. Seventy percent of soft tissue tumors that metastasized first recurred locally, but such a strong association was not evident for bone. Development of metastases significantly shortened survival. Radical primary excision of soft tissue malignancies sharply reduced local recurrence and thereby diminished metastatic risk; similar findings were not present for bone malignancies. This study suggests that the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society staging system is valid and should be applied to these infrequent malignancies, permitting future statistical comparisons.