Increasing Frequency of Soft Tissue Sarcomas in Vojvodina - Comparison with the Literature

Background: Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) represent 1% of all malignant lesions. In this study the authorsanalyzed the incidence of STS in Vojvodina (the north region of Serbia) in the period from 1985 to 2009. Anumber of studies conducted worldwide indicate that STS incidence rates are tending to increase. Materials and
Methods: On the basis of data from the Cancer Registry of Vojvodina, age standardized STS incidence rates wereestablished as well as their linear trend, with data on histological structure, age, gender and STS distributionat specific locations.
Results: The total number of registered patients was 1,308. Average age standardized ratewas 1.90/100,000 per year. The investigated period showed a slight increase in the incidence rate (average annualpercent increase=0.77%). The most frequent histological type was sarcoma not otherwise specified-NOS (27%),followed by leiomyosarcoma (21%), liposarcoma (14%), rhabdomyosarcoma (11%) and malignant fibroushistiocytoma (9%). The male/female ratio was 0.73:1. Every fifth patient was younger than 39.
Conclusions:Comparison among eight international STS epidemiology studies show that the incidence rate range is between1.4/100,000-5.0/100,000, though our finding is closer to the lower limit. Furthermore, the incidence rate increasewas lower than that characteristic for the half of the analyzed studies. A partial explanation for that should belooked for among changes in diagnostic criteria and STS classifications.