Survival of children with soft-tissue sarcoma in Europe since 1978: Results from the EUROCARE study

Soft-tissue sarcomas account for 5-8% of all childhood cancers in European countries. In the EUROCARE childhood cancer study, there were 2163 registrations from 17 countries for soft-tissue sarcomas in patients aged 0-14 years during 1978-1989. Of this total, three-quarters were contributed bychildhood cancer registries in Germanyand the UK. Age-standardised 5-year survival rates of children diagnosed during 1985-1989 were 65% (95% confidence interval (CI) 56-72) for rhabdomyosarcoma, 68% (95% CI 58-77) for fibrosarcoma, 78% (95% CI: 64-87) for other specified soft-tissue sarcomas except Kaposi's and 51% (95% CI 37-65) for 'unspecified' soft-tissue sarcomas. Survival rates increased steadilythroughout the 12-year studyperiod for all soft-tissue sarcomas combined, but the increase took place predominantlyin the early 1980s for rhabdomyosarcoma. Improvements in survival which had previouslybeen reported from individual countries and in clinical series are confirmed as having taken place throughout much of Europe on a population basis. In a supplementaryanalysis, there was little indication of a further improvement during 1990-1992.