Soft-tissue Sarcomas in the Asia-Pacific Region: A Systematic Review

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> Soft-tissue sarcomas require tailored and multidisciplinary treatment and management.However, little is known about how sarcomas are treated and managed throughout the Asia-Pacific region.Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: MEDLINE was systematically searched using prespecified criteria. Publications (previous10 years) that reported tumour characteristics, treatment patterns, survival outcomes, and/or safety outcomesof patients with soft-tissue sarcoma were selected. Exclusion criteria were studies of patients <18 years of age;≤10 patients; countries other than Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines,Singapore, Taiwan, or Thailand; >20% benign tumours; sarcomas located in bones or joints; gastrointestinalstromal tumour; Kaposi’s sarcoma; or not reporting relevant outcomes. <br/><b>Results</b>: Of the 1,822 publicationsretrieved, 35 (32 studies) were included. Nearly all patients (98%, 1,992/2,024; 31 studies) were treated withsurgery, and more studies used adjuvant radiotherapy than chemotherapy (24 vs 17 studies). Survival outcomesand recurrence rates varied among the studies because of the different histotypes, sites, and disease stagesassessed. Only 5 studies reported safety findings. <br/><b>Conclusions</b>: These findings highlight the lack of specific dataavailable about soft-tissue sarcomas in the Asia-Pacific region. Better efforts to understand how the sarcoma ismanaged and treated will help improve patient outcomes in the region.