Alessandro Gronchi, Director of the Department of Oncological Surgery at the IRCCS Foundation National Cancer Institute of Milan, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“We are pleased to share our latest work from Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori di Milano , recently published in Annals of Surgical Oncology, exploring how outcomes for patients with primary retroperitoneal soft tissue sarcoma have evolved over the past two decades.
In this study, we analyzed 872 consecutive patients treated between 2002 and 2021, comparing two distinct time periods. We observed a marked improvement in overall survival and disease-specific mortality over time, while rates of local recurrence and distant metastases showed only marginal changes. Importantly, post-recurrence survival improved substantially, across all major histologic subtypes.
These findings suggest that the survival gains seen in contemporary practice are the result of progressive, cumulative improvements rather than a single breakthrough. Key contributing factors include histology-tailored surgical strategies, increasing institutional experience, advances in perioperative care, and more effective treatments at recurrence.
On a personal note, this work reflects nearly 20 years of my professional life devoted to the care of patients with retroperitoneal sarcoma. It captures a long learning process—shared with many colleagues, fellows, and multidisciplinary partners—and the gradual transformation of daily practice into more consistent and better outcomes.
Grateful to all colleagues across surgery, medical oncology, pathology, radiology, radiotherapy, and biostatistics who made this journey possible.”
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