Liver metastasis in soft tissue sarcoma at initial presentation.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Noncontrast computed tomography of the chest is the standard imaging modality for cancer staging in patients with soft tissue sarcoma (STS), but appropriate candidates for liver screening have not been clarified. METHODS: We reviewed all patients with STS diagnosed between 2010 and 2018 in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. Incidence of liver metastasis at initial presentation and high incidence of liver metastasis by histological subtype were investigated. In addition, risk factors for liver metastasis were investigated by multiple logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: After excluding patients without information about liver metastasis, cause of death or primary liver tumor, 47 260 patients were included in this study. Of those, 1471 patients (3.2%) showed liver metastasis at initial presentation. The histological subtype showing the highest incidence of liver metastasis was desmoplastic small round cell tumor (30.3%), followed by malignant hemangioendothelioma (11.5%) and angiomyoliposarcoma (10.5%). Deep-rooted tumor, location in the body wall, retroperitoneum, or thorax/peritoneum, high histological grade, and higher T stage were associated with higher incidences of liver metastasis at initial presentation. CONCLUSION: Risk factors for liver metastasis were deep location, trunk development, larger tumor size, high histological grade, and specific histological subtypes.