Significance of HIFU in local unresectable recurrence of soft tissue sarcoma, a single-center, respective, case series in China

Purpose: Multimodality treatment of soft tissue sarcoma(STS) by expert teams reportedly affords a tremendous improvement in outcome of patients. Despite advances, treatment of local unresectable recurrence remains difficult and is not standardized. We performed this retrospective study in order to assess the efficacy and safety of high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablation in treating STS patients with local unresectable recurrence. Methods: Thirty-six STS patients with local unresectable recurrence from January 2015 to December 2016 were recruited according to the inclusion criteria. Pain rating, response rate, disease control rate, local disease progression-free survival(LPFS), progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival(OS) were used to evaluate efficacy of HIFU treatment. Results: HIFU resulted in a significant relief in pain rating, without severe side effects. According to magnetic resonance imaging(MRI), three months after HIFU treatment, response rate was 47.3% and the local disease control rate was 80.6%. Twelve months post HIFU treatment, response rate was 38.9% and the local disease control rate was 55.6%. The median LPFS, PFS and OS time for 36 patients was 13 months, 10 months and 20 months respectively. Conclusion: HIFU is a tolerated treatment modality with promising activity and safety in STS patients with local unresectable recurrence.