SARCOMA PATIENTS CHARACTERISTICS IN AN ONCOLOGICAL REFERENCE CENTER IN SOUTHERN BRAZIL

Introduction: Sarcomas are a rare and heterogeneous group of tumors, originated at mesenchymal cells and represent nearly 1% of all adult câncer. Sarcomas are divided in two large groups: soft tissue sarcomas and bone sarcomas. Objective: To know the characteristics of sarcoma patients in a hospital in southern Brazil and analyze the overall survival according to the sarcoma subtypes (bone sarcoma and soft tissue sarcoma), and to metastatic and non-metastatic disease. Methods: This is a retrospective, descriptive and observational study. The study used data from the Health information System, reviewing data from a cancer center in Santa Catarina. Were included in this study patients with sarcoma in any location, admitted between the years of 2000 to 2019. Results: In total, 918 sarcoma records were included in the study. Of these, 46.4% were women and 53.6% were men; 93.24% were white, 3.48% were black, 1,96% were mixed race and 0.10% was indigenous. The median age was 41 years. As for the morphology of sarcomas in general, osteosarcoma was the neoplasm with the highest number of cases (108), followed by leiomyosarcoma (93) and Ewing’s sarcoma (80). The location of the primary tumor was found in almost 30% of patients in the lower limbs, in 27% in the abdomen and pelvis, 11.5% in the chest and skin, just over 10% in the upper limbs, 7.8% in the head and neck. In 2.06% of patients the location of the primary tumor was unknown. Among the cases, 22.1% (203 patients) had metastases at diagnosis. The most common site of metastasis was the lung in 152 cases (74.8%), followed by the bones (18.2%) and the liver (17.7%). Among the metastatic patients, 57 (28%) had 2 or more metastatic sites. Overall survival of sarcomas analyzed by statistical method and Kaplan Meyer estimates was 20.7 months. In a subgroup analysis, soft tissue sarcomas had a survival of 20.7 months and bone sarcomas a survival of 20.5 months. Conclusion: The epidemiological profile of patients with sarcomas indicated a predominance of osteosarcoma among bone sarcomas and leiomyosarcoma among soft tissue sarcomas. Patients with metastatic disease at diagnosis accounted for 22.1%, the most common site being the lung with 74.8%. The overall survival observed in the study was 20.7 months including soft tissue and bone sarcomas. The current study is included in the national literature as one of the largest observational studies ever published, describing several characteristics of a population with sarcomas in a Brazilian center.