ArticleAnnals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England2011
Trends in presentation of bone and soft tissue sarcomas over 25 years: little evidence of earlier diagnosis.
Article in Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- UK guidelines for the management of soft tissue sarcomas.British journal of cancer · 2025Guideline
- The sarcoma diagnostic interval: a systematic review on length, contributing factors and patient outcomes.ESMO open · 2020Pooled it
- Article
- Time to treatment initiation and overall survival in osteosarcoma: a national cancer database analysis.Bone & joint open · 2026Article
- AnOncology research · 2026Article
- Histotripsy treatment reduces tumor burden and extends survival in an orthotopic mouse model of osteosarcoma.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Article
- Diagnostic Delay in Soft Tissue Sarcomas: A Review.Cancers · 2025Review
- Review
- Article
- Enhancing Healthcare for Sarcoma Patients: Lessons from a Diagnostic Pathway Efficiency Analysis.Cancers · 2023Article
- Fatal heart disease in patients with bone and soft tissue sarcoma.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2022Article
- Spindle cell sarcoma: a case report of diagnostic and therapeutic quandary in a low resource setting.Journal of surgical case reports · 2022Article
- Impact of Limb Salvage on Prognosis of Patients Diagnosed With Extremity Bone and Soft Tissue Sarcomas.Frontiers in oncology · 2022Article
- Patients with an increased time to treatment initiation have a poorer overall survival after definitive surgery for localized high-grade soft-tissue sarcoma in the extremity or trunk : report from the National Cancer Database.The bone & joint journal · 2021Article
- A Daily Diagnostic Multidisciplinary Meeting to Reduce Time to Definitive Diagnosis in the Context of Primary Bone and Soft Tissue Sarcoma.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2021Article
- Neoadjuvant Radiotherapy-Related Wound Morbidity in Soft Tissue Sarcoma: Perspectives for Radioprotective Agents.Cancers · 2020Review
- Evaluation of factors affecting survival rate in primary bone sarcomas with extremity and pelvis involvement.Acta orthopaedica et traumatologica turcica · 2020Article
- Symptom Signatures and Diagnostic Timeliness in Cancer Patients: A Review of Current Evidence.Neoplasia (New York, N.Y.) · 2018Review
- Long-term outcomes of patients with soft tissue sarcoma of the chest wall: Analysis of the prognostic significance of microscopic margins.Oncology letters · 2018Article
- Adult Primary Bone Sarcoma and Time to Treatment Initiation: An Analysis of the National Cancer Database.Sarcoma · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Earlier diagnosis is a key aim in achieving improved outcomes for patients with cancer. Bone and soft tissue sarcomas represent approximately 1% of all malignant tumours. Delays in diagnosis are frequent both because of their rarity and because the clinical features are easily confused with other conditions. In 2000 advice on earlier diagnosis was widely publicised. This study investigates how two factors that may act as a proxy for delay in diagnosis have varied over a 25-year period and whether there is evidence of improvement. Data on symptom duration and tumour size were collected prospectively on all new sarcoma patients referred to an orthopaedic oncology unit over 25 years. Data were available for 2,568 patients with primary bone sarcomas and 2,366 with soft tissue sarcomas. The mean sarcoma size at diagnosis was 10.7 cm and 9.9 cm respectively. The size of bone sarcomas had not changed over time but there had been a slight decrease in the size of soft tissue sarcomas (10.3 cm before 2000 vs 9.6 cm after 2000, p=0.03). The duration of symptoms reported by patients varied widely with a median of 16 weeks for bone sarcomas and 26 weeks for soft tissue sarcomas. The median duration of symptoms for bone sarcomas had actually increased since 2000 (16 weeks before vs 20 weeks after 2000, p<0.01). It remained unchanged for soft tissue sarcomas. These data show there is huge room for improvement in diagnosing bone and soft tissue sarcomas. New strategies are needed urgently.
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