Epidemiology of Adult Soft-Tissue Sarcomas in Germany

Table 1

Demographic and clinical characteristics of soft-tissue sarcoma cases from 2003 to 2012 in all 16 German states.

Characteristic	Number (%)
All cases including death certificate-only cases (n, %)	36,265 (100)
Type of diagnosis confirmation^a (n, %)
Histology of primary tumor	31,037 (86)
Death certificate only	2,462 (7)
Others (including autopsy, clinical diagnostics, clinically without specified diagnostic, cytology, histology of metastasis, and specific tumor markers)	1,040 (3)
Missing	1,726 (5)
Results below this row exclude death certificate-only cases
Cases excluding death certificate-only cases (study population) (n, %)	33,803 (100)
Sex (n, %)
Female	16,924 (50)
Male	16,879 (50)
Age at diagnosis (years)
Mean (SD)	62.7 (16.4)
Median	65
IQR (Q1, Q3)	51, 75
Distribution (n, %)
18–44	5,141 (15)
45–54	5,028 (15)
55–64	6,008 (18)
65–74	8,770 (26)
75+	8,856 (26)
Year of initial diagnosis (n, %)
2003–2005	7,775 (23)
2006–2008	10,301 (30)
2009–2011	11,924 (35)
2012	3,803 (11)
Histologic category (n, %)
Leiomyosarcoma	6,501 (19)
Liposarcoma	5,242 (16)
Sarcoma, NOS	4,720 (14)
Fibroblastic/myofibroblastic tumors	4,072 (12)
Fibrohistiocytic tumors	3,263 (10)
Tumors of uncertain differentiation	3,108 (9)
Angiosarcoma	2,176 (6)
Undifferentiated/unclassified sarcomas	2,018 (6)
Nerve sheath tumors	1,202 (4)
Rhabdomyosarcoma	782 (2)
Malignant neoplasm arising in soft tissues, NOS	508 (2)
Pericytic tumors	211 (1)
Anatomic location of primary tumor (n, %)
Lower extremity	6,687 (20)
Trunk	4,933 (15)
Head or neck	3,934 (12)
Miscellaneous	3,653 (11)
Upper extremity	2,811 (8)
Uterus	1,949 (6)
Retroperitoneal	1,921 (6)
Gastrointestinal	1,843 (5)
Pelvis (nonvisceral)	1,667 (5)
Breast	1,291 (4)
Genitourinary	1,188 (4)
Heart, mediastinum, lung, or pleura	1,169 (3)
Unknown	383 (1)
Gynecologic (other than uterus)	374 (1)

IQR: interquartile range; NOS: not otherwise specified; Q1: first quartile; Q3: third quartile; SD: standard deviation; ^acategories are mutually exclusive and presented exactly as reported in the registry.