Follow-Up after Curative Surgical Treatment of Soft-Tissue Sarcoma for Early Detection of Recurrence: Which Patients Have More or Fewer Visits than Advised in Guidelines?

• Published in: Cancers Vol. 15; no. 18; p. 4617
• Main Authors: Kruiswijk, Anouk A, Kuhrij, Laurien S, Dorleijn, Desiree M. J, van de Sande, Michiel A. J, van Bodegom-Vos, Leti, Marang-van de Mheen, Perla J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.09.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Care and treatment; Diseases; Health aspects; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Metastases; Patients; Radiation therapy; Relapse; Remission (Medicine); Risk assessment; Sarcoma; Surgery; Tumors; Netherlands
• ISSN: 2072-6694; 2072-6694
• DOI: 10.3390/cancers15184617

Introduction: Follow-up (FU) in soft-tissue sarcoma (STS) patients is designed for early detection of disease recurrence. Current guidelines are not evidenced-based and not tailored to patient or tumor characteristics, so they remain debated, particularly given concerns about cost, radiation frequency, and over-testing. This study assesses the extent to which STS patients received guideline-concordant FU and to characterize which type of patients received more or fewer visits than advised. Methods: All STS patients surgically treated at the Leiden University Medical Center between 2000–2020 were included. For each patient, along with individual characteristics, all radiological examinations from FU start up to 5 years were included and compared to guidelines. Recurrence was defined as local/regional recurrence or metastasis. Results: A total of 394 patients was included, of whom 250 patients had a high-grade tumor (63.5%). Only 24% of patients received the advised three FU visits in the first year. More FU visits were observed in younger patients and those diagnosed with a high-grade tumor. Among patients with a recurrence, 10% received fewer visits than advised, while 28% of patients without a recurrence received more visits than advised. Conclusions: A minority of STS patients received guideline-concordant FU visits, suggesting that clinicians seem to incorporate recurrence risk in decisions on FU frequency.