Clinical report on transarterial neoadjuvant chemotherapy of malignant fibrous histiocytoma in soft tissue

To review the experience in transarterial neoadjuvant chemotherapy of malignant fibrous histiocytoma (MFH) in soft tissue and to analyze the factors related to prognosis of MFH in soft tissue. Between September 1999 and December 2011, 101 cases of MFH in soft tissue patients treated by transarterial administration of Cisplatin, Adriamycin and Norcantharidin were divided into primary group and recurrent group, and the clinical documents were reviewed. Nine factors that might affect prognosis such as age, sex, tumor size, tumor site, tumor infiltration depth, recurrence if any, pathological type, histologic grade and histologic response of chemotherapy were analyzed statistically. The 5-year relapse-free survival rate and the overall survival rate were 70.5 and 75.0 %, respectively, in the primary group; 56.1 and 57.9 %, respectively, in the recurrent group. Univariate analysis (log-rank test) showed that the factors affecting the prognosis were age (P = 0.03), tumor size (P = 0.01), pelvic tumor (P = 0.02), recurrence if any (P = 0.004), histologic grade (P = 0.01), and histologic response to chemotherapy (P = 0.007). Multivariate analysis showed that the major factors affecting prognosis were pelvic tumor (P = 0.01), tumor size (P = 0.002), histologic grade (P = 0.002), recurrence if any (P = 0.0004), and histologic response to chemotherapy (P = 0.008). Transarterial neoadjuvant chemotherapy can significantly increase the curative efficacy of chemotherapy and survival rate in MFH treatment.