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Soft-tissue Sarcoma Metastases Identified on Abdomen and Pelvis CT Imaging

  • Symposium: Selected Papers Presented at the 2008 Meeting of the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society
  • Published:
Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research®

Abstract

The current standard of care for patients with extremity soft-tissue sarcomas is to obtain imaging of the chest for staging and surveillance. Our institutional standard of care has been to obtain CT scans of the chest, abdomen, and pelvis to evaluate for metastatic disease. Cost and radiation risk led us to question the utility of the additional scans. We presumed abdomen and pelvic CT scans would not benefit this patient population. We retrospectively reviewed our sarcoma databases from 2000 to 2008. We included 124 patients with 15 types of extremity soft tissue sarcomas evaluated with CT of the C/A/P. Primary outcomes were (1) location of metastatic disease in relation to (2) sarcoma type. Twenty patients (16%) presented with or developed abdomen/pelvis metastases and 10 of the 15 types of soft tissue sarcomas had abdominal or pelvic metastases. A larger number of patients demonstrated metastatic disease in the abdomen and pelvis than anticipated. We believe routine imaging of the abdomen and pelvic with CT for both staging and surveillance of all types of soft tissue sarcoma should be considered.

Level of Evidence: Level III, diagnostic study. See Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Heather Billington, PA-C, Lori Hollingsworth-Burds, PA-C, and Barb Rogowski for their substantial efforts and contribution to this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, 53226, USA

    David M. King MD & Donald A. Hackbarth MD

  2. Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, 53226, USA

    Chris M. Kilian BA

  3. Department of Radiology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, 53226, USA

    Guillermo F. Carrera MD

Authors
  1. David M. King MD
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  2. Donald A. Hackbarth MD
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  3. Chris M. Kilian BA
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  4. Guillermo F. Carrera MD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to David M. King MD.

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Each author certifies that he or she has no commercial associations (eg, consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangements, etc) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article.

Each author certifies that his or her institution has approved the human protocol for this investigation and that all investigations were conducted in conformity with ethical principles of research, and that informed consent for participation in the study was obtained.

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King, D.M., Hackbarth, D.A., Kilian, C.M. et al. Soft-tissue Sarcoma Metastases Identified on Abdomen and Pelvis CT Imaging. Clin Orthop Relat Res 467, 2838–2844 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-009-0989-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-009-0989-1

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