Malignant fibrous histiocytoma is the most common soft tissue sarcoma. We reviewed the results of treatment for this disease in 24 patients who were managed since 1986. They comprised 14 men and 10 women with a mean age of 56 years and mean follow-up period was 5 years. The primary lesion was treated surgically in all cases. Radiotherapy was given for the primary tumor, local recurrence, and metastasis in 7, 3, and 3 patients, respectively. Chemotherapy was given for primary and metastatic lesions in 11 and 3 patients, respectively. The survival rate determined by the Kaplan-Meier method was 72% at 5 years and 63% at 10 years. The survival rate was low in stages III B and IV B, with the median survival time being 3 years for III B and 10 months for IV B. Among the prognostic factors investigated, the site of the tumor was related to the prognosis. The relative risk was 9 and the 95% confidence interval was 1.5 to 59 in the patients with tumors of the trunk. The response of chemotherapy was NC and PD in 3 patients each, while that of radiotherapy was NC and PD in 4 and 6 patients, respectively. Thus, this disease was resistant to adjuvant therapy. The survival rate of patients who were alive without symptoms at 5 years after treatment was relatively high subsequently. However, the response rate of advanced disease to adjuvant therapy was low, indicating the need to develop new treatments in the future.
