Influence of Resident Education in Correctly Diagnosing Extremity Soft Tissue Sarcoma

Table 3

Residents’ rating of characteristics that increase suspicion for malignancy.

	General surgery	Orthopaedics	𝑃 value
Factors raising suspicion for malignancy
Largest size tumor that you would be comfortable with excising without a biopsy	3.8 (1.7)	3.8 (2.1)	.67
Rate the characteristic that increases suspicion for malignancy*
Depth of the mass	4.9 (0.9)	5.2 (0.9)	<.001
Rate of growth	5.3 (1.0)	5.6 (0.6)	<.001
Imaging characteristics	5.4 (1.0)	5.6 (0.6)	<.001
Location of the mass	4.9 (0.9)	4.9 (1.0)	.55
Mobility of the mass	4.5 (1.1)	4.4 (1.1)	.24
Age of the patient	4.4 (1.1)	4.6 (1.0)	.01

All data presented as mean (±SD). Options for tumor size were presented as integers ranging from 1 cm to 10 cm.
*Note: scores on the scale ranged from 1 to 6, with 1 indicating “Strongly Disagree” and 6 indicating “Strongly Agree.”