Sarcoma - Adult Soft Tissue Cancer - Survival by stage

Sarcoma - Adult Soft Tissue Cancer
Survival by stage

Survival rates are often used by doctors as a standard way of discussing a person's prognosis (outlook). Some patients with cancer may want to know the survival statistics for people in similar situations, while others may not find the numbers helpful, or may even not want to know them. Whether or not you want to read about the survival statistics below for soft tissue sarcoma is up to you.

The 5-year survival rate refers to the percentage of patients who live at least 5 years after their cancer is diagnosed. Of course, many people live much longer than 5 years (and many are cured).

Five-year relative survival rates assume that some people will die of other causes and compare the observed survival with that expected for people without the cancer. This is a more accurate way to describe the prognosis for patients with a particular type and stage of cancer.

In order to get 5-year survival rates, doctors have to look at people who were treated at least 5 years ago. If treatment has improved since then, people now being diagnosed with soft tissue sarcoma may have a more favorable outlook.

Survival rates are often based on previous outcomes of large numbers of people who had the disease, but they cannot predict what will happen in any particular person's case. Many other factors may affect a person's outlook, like the type of sarcoma, the location of the tumor, and the age of the patient. For example, sarcomas of the arms or legs have a better outlook than those found in other places. Also, older patients tend to have worse outcomes than younger people. Your doctor can tell you how the numbers below may apply to you, as he or she is familiar with the aspects of your particular situation.

The overall 5-year relative survival of people with soft tissue sarcomas is around 50% according to statistics from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). These statistics include people with Kaposi sarcoma, which has a poorer outlook than many sarcomas. The NCI doesn’t separate cases into the AJCC staging system. Instead, they group sarcomas only by whether they are still confined to the primary site (called localized) have spread to nearby lymph nodes or tissues (called regional); or have spread (metastasized) to sites away from the main tumor (called distant). The corresponding 5-year relative survival rates were:

•83% for localized sarcomas (56% of soft tissue sarcomas were localized when they were diagnosed)
•54% for regional stage sarcomas; (19% were in this stage)
•16% for sarcomas with distant spread (16% were in this stage)
The 10-year relative survival rate is only slightly worse for these stages, meaning that most people who survive 5 years are cured.

full-text:
Survival by stage