The prognostic value of histologic subtypes in primary extremity liposarcoma

Abstract

Patients with a localized primary liposarcoma of the extremity who were treated in Memorial Sloan‐Kettering Cancer Center between 1968 and 1978 were studied. The prognosis of patients with extremity liposarcoma was analyzed according to histopathologic subtypes. A system of five subtypes was used; well‐differentiated, myxoid, fibroblastic, lipoblastic, and pleomorphic liposarcomas. The 5‐year treatment failure rates and survival rates were, respectively, 30% and 100% for well‐differentiated, 25% and 88% for myxoid, 60% and 58% for fibroblastic, 100% and 40% for lipoblastic, and 64% and 56% for pleomorphic liposarcomas. Although local recurrence was present in all five subtypes, a significant increment in local failure was seen in patients with high‐grade liposarcomas. Distant metastasis after the initial operation was not found in patients with well‐differentiated liposarcoma and rare in the patients with myxoid liposarcoma. In contrast, 50% of the patients with fibroblastic, lipoblastic, and pleomorphic liposarcoma had a distant relapse within 5 years. Copyright © 1989 American Cancer Society