They are of connective tissue origin. Growth is relatively slow compared with most tumors, but aggressive accelerated growth is also seen, as this is a heterogeneous group. Desmoid tumors are almost always non-metastatic. Deeply infiltrating lesions can invade into surrounding muscle. The mainstay of treatment has always been surgery.
Treatment aims to have a curative effect with a good functional and cosmetic outcome.
These patients were treated from 1965 to 1994. Median follow-up was 7.5 months. Twenty-three had radical RT for gross unresectable or residual disease following subtotal resection. RT was delivered with a cobalt-60 machine or megavoltage linear accelerator. No significant factors were found to correlate with relapse rates on univariate analysis.