Pattern of Pediatric Soft Tissue and Bone Sarcomas at South Egypt Cancer Institute, Retrospective Study

Background: Sarcomas are malignant tumors that arise from mesenchymal tissue and represent an important group of childhood tumors. This study aimed to describe the pattern of pediatric sarcoma at our locality.
Methods: A retrospective descriptive study conducted at Pediatric Oncology Department, South Egypt Cancer Institute. It included all pediatric patients up to 18 years with De novo histologically confirmed soft tissue or bone sarcoma between January 2013 and December 2018. Data collected from patients' files were demographic data, clinical presentation and diagnostic criteria. Patients stratified into two groups, soft tissue (group I) and bone sarcoma (group II).
Results: Histologically confirmed pediatric soft tissue and bone sarcoma were reported in seventy nine patients representing 6.5% (79 out of 1200) of all recorded malignant pediatric tumors at our department during the same period. Soft tissue sarcoma (STS) recorded in 34 (43.1 %) patients and bone sarcoma in 45 (56.9 %) patients. Twenty three (67.6%) were younger than 10 years in STS group, while 37(82.2%) of bone sarcomas group were older than 10 years. Swelling was the most common presentation in both study groups; 61.8% in STS group versus 75.6% in bone sarcoma group. The majority of patients presented with large sized tumors (53%, and 68.9%) in STS and bone sarcomas respectively. High grade pathology (70.6% and 93.3%) reported in STS and bone sarcoma respectively .Distant metastasis in 18 (40%) of bone sarcoma patients and only in 4(11.8%) of STS Patients. Stage III was the most common (58.8%) in STS group.
Conclusion:
Misdiagnosis and late presentation were resulted in presentation of most our patients with large sized tumor and advanced stage (III or IV), that may reduce the chance of curative treatment. Studying of the impact of clinical and tumor characteristics on survival outcome is planned in the future .