Morbidity and Mortality After Treatment of Ewing Sarcoma: A Single-institution Experience

Background: Children, adolescents, and young adults treated for Ewing sarcoma (ES) are at risk for disease-related and treatment-related complications. We aimed to describe early and late overall mortality, cause-specific mortality, and key adverse health outcomes in a large, single-institutional cohort of patients with ES.

Methods: Patients with ES diagnosed at age less than 40 years and treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering between 1974 and 2012 were included. Overall survival was estimated using Kaplan-Meier methods. Cox proportional hazards were used to examine the association of clinical and pathologic variables with overall survival. Cause-specific mortality was evaluated with the cumulative incidence function accounting for competing risks.

Results: Three hundred patients with ES (60.3% male; median age at diagnosis: 16.8 years [range: 0.3-39]; 30.0% with metastatic disease at diagnosis) were followed for a median of 7.8 years (range: 0.2-37). Five-year overall survival was 65.2% (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 59.8-71.1%) for the entire cohort; 78.6% for those with localized disease; 40.1% for those with isolated pulmonary metastases; and 28.1% for those with extrapulmonary metastases. In multivariable analysis, older age at diagnosis, minority race/ethnicity, and metastatic disease at diagnosis were associated with inferior survival. Ten-year cumulative incidence of relapse/progression was 40.1%, with eight late relapses occurring at a median of 6.3 years after diagnosis (range: 5-14). Seventeen patients developed subsequent neoplasms (treatment-related myelodysplastic syndrome/acute myelogenous leukemia = 9; solid tumors = 6; nonmelanoma skin cancer [NMSC] = 4). Excluding NMSC and melanoma in situ, the cumulative incidence of subsequent malignant neoplasms at 25 years was 15% (95% CI, 4.8-25.1%).

Conclusion: Patients with ES are at high risk for relapse/progression and second cancers.