Soft tissue sarcoma diagnosed subsequent to lymphoma is associated with prior radiotherapy and decreased survival

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Cancer survivors are at increased risk for second malignancies, and vigilance is thus required. The authors sought to determine whether there was an association among lymphoma, sarcoma, and the associated treatments for these diseases. METHODS: From the authors' prospective soft tissue sarcoma (STS) database of 8240 patients, they identified 112 patients with STS and lymphoma treated from 1982 to 2009 who had complete follow-up data. They examined the importance of the initial diagnosis in patients with both STS and lymphoma, in addition to determining the role of radiation therapy, a known inducer of sarcoma. RESULTS: Review of their sarcoma, gastric, urology, breast, and gynecology databases revealed that lymphoma (95%) or leukemia (5%) occurred in 1.6% of STS patients in comparison to 0.5% of patients in the other databases (P