Curability of patients with lymph node metastases from extremity soft‐tissue sarcoma

Background Lymph node metastases (LNM) rarely occur in adult extremity soft‐tissue sarcoma (STS), affecting approximately 5% of patients. To the authors' knowledge, few studies to date have evaluated the prognosis and survival of patients with LNM. Methods A retrospective review was performed of a single‐center, prospectively collected STS database. Demographic, treatment, and oncologic data for patients with STS of the extremity with LNM were obtained from clinical and radiographic records. Results Of 2689 patients with extremity STS, a total of 120 patients (4.5%) were diagnosed with LNM. LNM occurred most frequently among patients diagnosed with clear cell sarcoma (27.6%), epithelioid sarcoma (21.9%), rhabdomyosarcoma (17.3%), angiosarcoma (14.0%), and extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma (9.3%). A total of 98 patients (81.7%) underwent LNM surgical resection. Patients with isolated LNM had a greater 5‐year overall survival (57.3%) compared with patients with American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) eighth edition stage IV STS with only systemic metastases (14.6%) or both LNM and systemic disease (0%; P