Aim: To identify prognostic for patients who develop local recurrence after initial attempted curative treatment for a soft tissue sarcoma (STS).

Method: All patients who developed a local recurrence (LR) after initial primary treatment of a STS were identified from a prospective database. Their management and outcome were analysed to find prognostic factors.

Results: 178 patients were identified. They had a median age at original diagnosis of 53 and 102 of the patients had high grade tumours, 50 intermediate grade and 23 low grade. The median time to LR was 14 months but extended up to 11.5 years. 47 of the patients developed metastases either before or synchronously with the LR. In these patients the median survival was 20 months with only 4% surviving to 5 years. In the 131 patients who did not have identifiable metastases at the time of diagnosis, 74 subsequently developed metastases at a median time of 12 months following the development of LR.

The median survival for patients without metastases at the time of LR was 3 years with a 31% survival at 10 years. The most important prognostic factor in this group was grade with low grade tumours having a much better outlook (70% survival at 10 years) than intermediate or high grade tumours (24% at 10 years). Complete control of the first local recurrence could not be shown to be a prognostic factor.

Conclusion: Local recurrence has a poor prognosis but this is because it frequently arises in patients who have other bad prognostic factors. Whilst obtaining local control is important, overall survival is poor, but not as bad for those patients who develop metastases.