5 years study of soft tissue sarcomas at Gandhi Hospital, Hyderabad - A tertiary care centre

Background: Soft tissue sarcomas are uncommon malignant mesenchymal tumours, of unknown etiology, accounting for less than 1% of the all the malignant neoplasms, with a median age of occurrence at 65 years, having male preponderance, 3/4th of them occurring in the deep soft tissues, especially thigh, with median diameter of 9 cm. 2/3rd of them metastasizing to the lung. Sarcomas need thorough evaluation by radiology to assess the extent, depth and neurovascular involvement. Morphology has to be correlated with histochemistry and immunohistochemistry. Aim: To study the prevalence, in relation to age, sex, site and size. To correlate histopathological findings with immunohistochemistry marker studies at our institution, studying and comparing with changing overviews and evolving literature. Materials and methods: All the soft tissue mass specimens submitted to the Department of Pathology, Gandhi Hospital, Hyderabad, from January 2011 to December 2015, were subjected to routine processing and those cases on histopathology, suspected to be sarcomas were included in the study, analyzed with ancillary techniques to arrive at final diagnosis. Results: A total of 40 sarcomas were encountered out of 20460, histopathology biopsy load at Gandhi Hospital, Hyderabad, constituting an incidence rate of 2%. Majority of the tumours were seen in the age groups of 40-49 years and 60-69 (20% each) with male preponderance (67.5%), occurring mostly in the trunk region (50%), with average size of 10 cm and constituting 0.6% of cancer incidence. Liposarcoma was the commonest soft tissue sarcoma in the present study. Conclusion: Liposarcoma was the commonest soft tissue sarcoma in the present study followed by Undifferentiated Pleomorphic sarcoma and Leiomyosarcoma. Most of the tumors presented with mass lesion, pressure symptoms and incidentally detected on imageology. FNAC was not very helpful in present study. Prediction of the course of the disease was difficult as most of the patients were referred to cancer institutions in the city, for further management.