PREOPERATIVE CORE BIOPSY OF SOFT TISSUE TUMOURS FACILITATES THEIR SURGICAL MANAGEMENT: A 10-YEAR UPDATE
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Dixon T. S. Woon; Jonathan W. Serpell
- Source
- ANZ Journal of Surgery. 78:977-981
- Subject
- Adult
medicine.medical_specialty
Time Factors
Open biopsy
Adolescent
Biopsy
medicine.medical_treatment
Enucleation
Soft Tissue Neoplasms
Diagnosis, Differential
Young Adult
Preoperative Care
medicine
Humans
Aged
Neoplasm Staging
Retrospective Studies
Aged, 80 and over
medicine.diagnostic_test
business.industry
Soft tissue sarcoma
Reproducibility of Results
Soft tissue
Retrospective cohort study
General Medicine
Middle Aged
medicine.disease
Surgery
Radiation therapy
business
Core biopsy
Follow-Up Studies
- Language
- ISSN
- 1445-1433
Background: Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are rare. More often than not, the possibility of STS is not considered preoperatively and the lesions are enucleated. Enucleation (excisional biopsy) is inappropriate for sarcomas as it compromises the planning of definitive surgery and radiotherapy. Incisional biopsy has been regarded as the biopsy of choice by some, but it has a high rate of wound complications. The aims of the study were (i) to assess the current accuracy of core biopsy in the diagnosis of STS; (ii) to assess whether preoperative core biopsy facilitates the surgical management of soft tissue tumours; and (iii) to evaluate whether there has been an increase in the use of core biopsy before referral. Methods: Patients with soft tissue tumours managed by a surgeon with a special interest in soft STS from 1994 to 2007 were reviewed from data collected in a database prospectively. The accuracy of core biopsy in the diagnosis of soft tissue tumours and planning of definitive surgery were assessed. Results: Ninety-four patients with 98 lesions were reviewed. Sixty-eight lesions had core biopsy. The overall sensitivity of core biopsy in diagnosing soft tissue tumours was 83.6%. It has a sensitivity of 91.3% and specificity of 100% for malignant STS. For patients who had core biopsy, 95% had one-stage surgery; those who had no core biopsy, only 45% had one-stage surgery (P value