Histological factors contributing to favorable prognoses of soft tissue sarcomas in premenopausal patients

The correlations of sex with various histologic factors in soft tissue sarcomas (STS) were studied in 142 adult patients over the age of 20 years. They included 63 with malignant fibrous histiocytomas, 20 with liposarcomas, 20 with synovial sarcomas, 11 with malignant Schwannomas and 28 with other forms of STS. These were divided into four groups, according to age (20-49 years and greater than or equal to 50 years) and sex. Survival rates in female patients were better than those in male patients, and the difference was significant between the 20-49 year groups (p less than 0.01). The relative frequencies in distribution of each histologic type were similar among male and female patients in both age groups. Among histological factors, mitotic counts showed a significant correlation (P less than 0.04) with sex, followed by cellularity. STS in female patients aged 20-49 years had lower mitotic counts than in patients in other groups, where it occurred with a higher frequency of low and intermediate grade tumors. The findings suggested estrogen, either directly to indirectly, to have a favorable effect on STS prognosis in premenopausal female patients.