Five-year survival reaches 73.2% in population-based study of soft tissue sarcomas

A retrospective population-based study of soft tissue sarcomas (STS) has reported that five-year overall survival among patients with nonmetastatic disease was 73.2%, with tumour site, histological subtype, patient age, sex and stage all emerging as significant predictors of outcome. The research, published in BMC Cancer, drew on incident cases recorded by the population-based Veneto Regional Cancer Registry in 2017 and 2018.

The study examined 325 incident cases of nonmetastatic soft tissue sarcoma captured by the registry. By using a population-based registry cohort, the authors aimed to evaluate five-year overall survival across a defined regional population rather than a selected referral sample.

To assess the association between demographic and clinical-pathological features and survival, the researchers applied the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression analysis. The reported five-year overall survival of 73.2% carried a 95% confidence interval of 68.5 to 78.2, reflecting the precision of the estimate in this cohort of 325 patients.

Location of the primary tumour had a marked effect on survival. Retroperitoneal soft tissue sarcomas showed the highest mortality risk in the analysis, with a hazard ratio of 3.18 (95% CI: 1.53–6.61; p = 0.002). This indicates that, after accounting for other factors in the model, patients with retroperitoneal tumours faced a substantially elevated risk of death compared with those whose tumours arose at other sites.

The line of STS differentiation also emerged as an independent prognostic factor. Tumours of fibroblastic or myofibroblastic differentiation carried a hazard ratio of 2.86 (95% CI: 1.3–6.28; p = 0.009). The authors note that the diverse outcomes observed across STS histotypes emphasise the importance of multicentre, large-scale studies based on consensus diagnostic criteria within the histological lines of differentiation.

Beyond tumour characteristics, patient demographics and disease extent were significant predictors. Patients’ sex (p = 0.026), age (p < 0.001) and stage (p < 0.001) were all statistically significant in the analysis. In this population-based study, the clinical outcomes of STS patients were significantly associated with patient age, primary site and histology subtype.

The study was conducted in accordance with the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki, and the Veneto Oncological Institute’s Ethics Committee approved the research under protocol number 52/2016. The article is published open access, and the version shared ahead of final publication is citable and carries a permanent DOI, subject to further editorial edits before the final Version of Record appears.

Because the analysis is retrospective and limited to a single Italian region over a two-year incidence window, the findings describe the outcomes of this specific cohort rather than establishing causal effects of treatment. The authors frame the work as underscoring how heterogeneous soft tissue sarcomas are as a group, and why large-scale collaborative studies using agreed diagnostic criteria are needed to refine prognosis across the many histological subtypes the disease encompasses.

Subject of Research: Five-year overall survival and prognostic factors in nonmetastatic soft tissue sarcoma based on a regional cancer registry cohort

Article Title: Soft tissue sarcomas prognosis based on clinical-pathological profile: a retrospective population-based study

Article References: Buja, A., Rugge, M., Di Pumpo, M., Trevisiol, C., Del Fiore, P., Pantaleo, I., Palmeri, C., Rossi, C. R., Brunello, A., Dei Tos, A. P., Conte, P., Zorzi, M., Sbaraglia, M., & Mocellin, S. (2026). Soft tissue sarcomas prognosis based on clinical-pathological profile: a retrospective population-based study. BMC Cancer. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-026-16857-8

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12885-026-16857-8

Keywords: soft tissue sarcoma, overall survival, population-based study, cancer registry, retroperitoneal sarcoma, histological subtype, Cox regression, Kaplan-Meier, prognostic factors, Veneto, BMC Cancer, epidemiology