Original ResearchSurgery alone is sufficient therapy for children and adolescents with low-risk synovial sarcoma: A joint analysis from the European paediatric soft tissue sarcoma Study Group and the Children's Oncology Group

•The analysis assesses outcomes in pediatric patients with localized synovial sarcoma treated with a surgery only approach.•It showed that young patients with adequately resected ≤5 cm synovial sarcoma can be safely treated with surgery only.•Avoiding the use of adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy may decrease treatment morbidity.

BackgroundMultimodal risk-adapted treatment is used in paediatric protocols for synovial sarcoma (SS). Retrospective analyses suggest that low-risk SS patients can be safely treated with surgery alone, but no prospective studies have confirmed the safety of this approach. This analysis pooled data from the two prospective clinical trials to assess outcomes in SS patients treated with a surgery-only approach and to identify predictors of treatment failure.MethodsPatients with localised SS enrolled on the European paediatric Soft tissue sarcoma Study Group (EpSSG) NRSTS2005 and on the Children Oncology Group (COG) ARST0332 trials, treated with surgery alone were eligible for this analysis. Patients must have undergone initial complete resection with histologically free margins, with a grade 2 tumour of any size or a grade 3 tumour ≤5 cm.ResultsSixty patients under 21 years of age were eligible for the analysis; 36 enrolled in the COG (from 2007 to 2012) and 24 in the EpSSG study (from 2005 to 2012). The 3-year event-free survival was 90% (median follow-up 5.2 years, range 1.9-9.1). All eight events were local tumour recurrence, whereas no metastatic recurrences were seen. All patients with recurrence were effectively salvaged, resulting in 100% overall survival.ConclusionThis joint prospective analysis showed that patients with adequately resected ≤5 cm SS, regardless of grade, can be safely treated with a surgery-only approach. Avoiding the use of adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy in this low-risk patient population may decrease both short- and long-term morbidity and mortality.