1953P Prognostic value of pretreatment inflammatory markers and other clinicopathological factors for early recurrence in soft tissue sarcoma

The diversity of clinical and pathological characteristics of soft tissue sarcoma (STS) presents a challenge for the prediction of prognosis. Recently, pretreatment inflammatory markers have gained interest as predictive factors for survival in cancer patients. The aim of this study is to evaluate inflammatory markers as a predictive biomarker for early recurrence in STS. 118 patients with primary, localized soft tissue sarcoma were retrospectively reviewed for early recurrence. Early recurrence was defined as a disease relapse (local or distant) within the first year after diagnosis. Pretreatment inflammatory markers including leukocytes, interleukin-6 (IL-6), C-reactive protein (CRP), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and other variables including tumor grade, tumor Departmenth, location, size, and the presence of tumor necrosis on imaging were analyzed for their association with early recurrence. Survival data was analyzed using Log-rank test and Cox regression to identify prognostic factors for early recurrence. Pretreatment IL-6 elevation was associated with higher tumor grade, increased size, and necrosis on imaging. Elevated CRP was associated with higher tumor grade, NLR and PLR with tumor Departmenth, and PLR with tumor location. Early recurrences were found in 23 of 118 patients (19.5%): 7 local, 15 distant recurrences and 1 with both manifestations. Univariate analysis revealed that tumor grade (low vs high, p = 0.008), tumor Departmenth (superficial vs deep, p = 0.005), and IL-6 level (< 7 vs ≥ 7 ng/L, p = 0.012) were significantly associated with early recurrence; other inflammatory markers including leukocytes, CRP, NLR and PLR were not. Multivariate analysis did not reveal independent risk factors associated with the development of early recurrences in STS, although the number of cases were low. Early recurrences in STS are not only associated with higher grade and deeper tumors, but also with increased plasma levels of IL-6.