{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,23]],"date-time":"2026-10-23T20:59:44Z","timestamp":1792789184562,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":28,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"19","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,5]],"date-time":"2026-10-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1791158400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"University of Oxford","id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/052gg0110","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/052gg0110","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Cancers"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background\/Objectives: Extremity leiomyosarcoma is an uncommon soft tissue sarcoma with a more favorable prognosis than other anatomical subtypes. Risk stratification currently rests on tumor grade, size, and metastatic status. Vascular invasion is an established predictor of metastasis in mixed soft tissue sarcoma cohorts but has seldom been formally examined in extremity leiomyosarcoma. We assessed its prognostic value in a single-center cohort. Methods: We retrospectively studied 62 adults who underwent resection of primary localized extremity leiomyosarcoma at a tertiary sarcoma center between January 2015 and February 2025. Vascular invasion was reported contemporaneously at original diagnostic reporting by specialist sarcoma histopathologists. Overall (OS), disease-specific (DSS), local recurrence-free (LRFS), and metastasis-free (MFS) survival were estimated by the Kaplan\u2013Meier method and compared using log-rank tests. Death from another cause was treated as a competing event for disease-specific death and distant metastasis in a sensitivity analysis. Multivariable Cox models were refitted using Firth\u2019s penalized likelihood, with discrimination corrected for optimism by bootstrapping. Results: Median follow-up was 59.5 months. Five-year OS, DSS, and MFS were 71.0%, 80.2%, and 74.6%. Vascular invasion was reported in 11 of 62 patients (17.7%) and was associated with inferior OS (p = 0.002), DSS (p &lt; 0.001), and MFS (p &lt; 0.001), but not LRFS (p = 0.631). Adjusted for grade, it was associated with inferior OS (HR 3.89, 95% CI 1.35\u201311.26), DSS (HR 5.48, 95% CI 1.46\u201320.58), and MFS (HR 5.63, 95% CI 1.69\u201318.80). The association persisted on separate adjustment for tumor size, depth, and neoadjuvant radiotherapy. Conclusions: Vascular invasion was associated with inferior survival in localized extremity leiomyosarcoma. With 17 deaths and 14 metastatic events, these are exploratory estimates, but they support documenting vascular invasion explicitly, as present or absent, in routine histopathological reporting so that its role can be evaluated at scale.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/cancers18193212","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,5]],"date-time":"2026-10-05T10:02:27Z","timestamp":1791194547000},"page":"3212","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Vascular Invasion and Survival in Extremity Leiomyosarcoma: An Exploratory Single-Center Cohort Study from the Oxford Sarcoma Service"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0007-6151-4557","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Seva N. S.","family":"Gill","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2JD, UK"},{"name":"Oxford Sarcoma Service, Oxford University Hospitals, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0009-4129-2074","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tanjot S.","family":"Kurala","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Academic Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics, School of Medicine, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Serkan","family":"Bayram","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Istanbul University, 34452 Istanbul, Turkey"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0005-7540-9155","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jennifer M.","family":"Brown","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Oxford Sarcoma Service, Oxford University Hospitals, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK"},{"name":"Department of Cellular Pathology, Oxford University Hospitals, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-5929-544X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Muhammad","family":"Riaz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Oxford Sarcoma Service, Oxford University Hospitals, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Muhammad A.","family":"Siddiqi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Oxford Sarcoma Service, Oxford University Hospitals, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9505-7955","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Thomas D. A.","family":"Cosker","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2JD, UK"},{"name":"Oxford Sarcoma Service, Oxford University Hospitals, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,5]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1404","DOI":"10.1002\/cam4.288","article-title":"Epidemiology and survivorship of soft tissue sarcomas in adults: A national cancer database report","volume":"3","author":"Corey","year":"2014","journal-title":"Cancer Med."},{"key":"ref_2","first-page":"200","article-title":"Soft-tissue sarcoma in adults: An update on the current state of histiotype-specific management in an era of personalized medicine","volume":"70","author":"Gamboa","year":"2020","journal-title":"CA Cancer J. 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