Using data from 4,451 patients with histologically confirmed DFSP, the authors found a significantly greater risk of recurrence in patients with large (≥3 cm) tumor sizes.
Clinical Pearls
This research letter used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program to describe demographics, tumor characteristics, and interventions of Dermatofibrosarcoma Protuberans (DFSP) with the goal of identifying risk factors for recurrence.
Using data from 4,451 patients with histologically confirmed DFSP, the authors found a significantly greater risk of recurrence in patients with large (≥3 cm) tumor sizes.
Discussion:
In this database analysis, the authors focused on better understanding risk factors for recurrence of Dermatofibrosarcoma Protuberans (DFSP). Specifically, the authors cited past research on DFSP prognosis being limited, emphasizing the need for larger, more comprehensive studies such as this one. Using the SEER program, the authors described the demographics, tumor characteristics, and interventions of DFSP as well as analyzing recurrence free survival (time of DFSP diagnosis to recurrence of DFSP-specific death).
Data from 7,647 patients with histologically confirmed DFSP was initially collected, however, following exclusion due to missing information, data from 4,451 patients was used in the final analysis. Of these 4,451 patients, 56 had DFSP recurrence. Following multivariate analysis looking at each patient’s age, sex, race, household income, and tumor size, the risk of DFSP recurrence was found to be 2.60 (95% CI: 1.30, 5.18) times higher in patients with large (≥3 cm) tumor size when compared to patients with small tumor size.
This study provides data to allow providers to better identify patients at risk for recurrence of dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans. However, as this study uses the SEER database, it is limited in that certain years provided data regarding tumor size through categorical variables.
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