Head and neck soft tissue sarcoma
Soft tissue sarcoma arising as a head and neck lesion is very rare in adults. Therefore, no standardized treatment exists for this entity of disease. We retrospectively analyzed 11 cases of head and neck soft tissue sarcomas treated at Osaka University Hospital from 1991 to 2011. They were pathologically classified as follows: 5 cases with rhabdomyosarcoma, 2 cases with liposarcoma, 2 cases with undifferentiated sarcoma and one each of epithelioid hemangioendothelioma and malignant fibrous histocytoma. Rhabdomyosarcomas were treated with multimodality therapy. Other sarcomas were treated mainly with surgery. The prognosis of patients with sarcoma depended on the histology, histological grade, tumor size and tumor stage. Patients with larger tumors, high grade tumors and advanced stage tumors had a poor prognosis, while those with rhabdomyosaracoma had a better prognosis. Further investigation is required to establish the new treatment protocol for adult soft tissue sarcoma and to improve survival.