Jones CW, et al. - The mid- and long-term survivorship and the functional and radiographic outcomes of patients treated with extracorporeally irradiated allografts for primary and secondary bone tumours were reviewed retrospectively. As per the findings, extracorporeal irradiation resulted in good functional and radiographic outcomes and was recognized as a versatile reconstructive technique for dealing with large defects after the resection of bone tumours. In addition, data reported a strong correlation of functional outcomes, as measured by Musculoskeletal Tumor Society, Toronto Extremity Salvage Score and Quality of Life-C30, to radiographic outcomes.

Methods

• A follow-up was performed in a total of 113 of 116 (97.4%) patients who were treated with extracorporeally irradiated allografts between 1996 and 2014.
• Reconstructions, prostheses and composite reconstructions, both with and without vascularised grafts were the forms of treatment.
• Using the Kaplan-Meier method, survivorship was determined.
• Using the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society (MSTS) scoring system, the Toronto Extremity Salvage Score (TESS) and Quality of Life-C30 (QLQ-30) measures, clinical outcomes were evaluated.
• Furthermore, researchers used the International Society of Limb Salvage (ISOLS) radiographic scoring system to assess radiographic outcomes.

Results

• This study included a total of 61 (54%) men with a mean age of 22 years (6 to 70) and 52 (46%) women with a mean age of 26 years (3 to 85).
• A total of 23 deaths were reported.
• The reported 5-year patient survivorship was 82.3% and the 10-year patient survivorship was 79.6%.
• For the 90 surviving patients, a mean follow-up of 80.3 months (2 to 207) was performed.
• Researchers noted that at the last follow-up, 105 allografts (92.9%) were still in place or had been at the time of death; eight (7%) had failed due to infection, local recurrence or fracture.
• They also found that outcome scores were comparable with or superior to those in previous studies.
• As documented in this study, the mean outcome scores were: MSTS 79% (sd 8); TESS 83% (sd 19); QLQ 82% (sd 16); ISOLS 80.5% (sd 19).