Surveillance in patients with sarcoma of the extremities

Aim To evaluate the efficiency of our follow-up regime for patients with sarcoma of the extremities. Methods We have reviewed our follow-up policy in 480 patients with non-metastatic bone or soft tissue sarcomas and with more than 5 years of follow-up. Results We detected 24% of the soft tissue sarcoma recurrences and 38% of the bone tumour recurrences. We detected 67% of the pulmonary metastases before they became symptomatic. Only 11% of those patients who developed metastases were cured, as were only 26% of those who developed local recurrence. Conclusions This study shows that our surveillance programme detects most metastases, but only about one third of the local recurrences.