UICC World Cancer Congress 2006

Objective: St. James's Hospital in Dublin treats the largest number of patients with cancer in Ireland and 18% of patients with sarcoma are treated at this institution. A hospital Sarcoma Registry was established in 2005. Patients entered into the registry for 2004 were initially evaluated, and we documented clinical information, smoking history and treatment options

Methods: Data was collated retrospectively on malignant tumours of mesenchymal tissue differentiation that included sarcomas of soft tissue and visceral locations, all gastrointestinal stromal tumours and mesothelioma. Patients with sarcoma were initially retrieved based on SNOMED coding of diagnoses and from hospital records.

Results: We analysed data on 26 patients for 2004. There was a wide age range (15 – 83 years; mean = 58 years) with female predominance (54%). The entries included a heterogeneous group of tumours of which the commonest sites were lower limb, head and neck areas. There were 4 patients diagnosed with GIST (one was low risk, 2 were high risk and two were frank sarcomas).] 81% of sarcoma patients were treated by surgery, 43% received chemotherapy and certain patients received radiation therapy, alone or in combination. 93% of patients were seen within 2 weeks of being referred, and 82% were treated within 2 weeks of diagnosis. 54% were smokers (national average smoking rate 24%) .

St. James's Hospital recently established a Sarcoma Registry to obtain accurate data about clinical and pathological features of sarcomas, to facilitate the monitoring of treatment and clinical behaviour and to enable comparison with best international practice.