OBJECTIVES : Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are rare malignant tumors. The literature evidence suggests an increase in the incidence of STS over the years. The objective is to forecast the incidence of STS over next two decades across the globe as per the recent incidence rates (IR).

METHODS : A literature review was performed (January 2008 - December 2018) using biomedical databases (MEDLINE^®, EMBASE^®, Google Scholar) and other sources (conference proceedings, registries). The best country specific data source was identified by quality assessment. The trend estimate was based on age and gender-specific rates from historical data for individual geographies. The open source UN annual population estimates were used as base population for the forecast period. The age and gender-specific incidence estimates were projected for the forecast period (2018-2040).

RESULTS : Top geographies with high incidence of STS were the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan. In these geographies, the age standardised IR is expected to increase from 3.51 to 4.30 (US), 5.39 to 6.35 (UK), 4.11 to 4.66 (France), 5.73 to 6.71 (Germany) and 4.48 to 5.32 (Japan) per 100,000 from 2018-2040. The STS IR is higher in males and older age groups. The annual growth for incidence of STS is 1.80%, 1.32%, 0.94%, 0.69% and 0.34% in the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan respectively. By 2040, annual incidence cases of STS in the US are estimated to be ~16k, followed by Japan with ~6k and Germany with ~5k. Localized stages account for 60% of the incident STS cases in the US followed by regional stages (19%). In Japan, stage III & IV account for majority (43%) of STS incident cases followed by stage IA & IB (35%).

CONCLUSIONS : The IR and incident cases of STS are growing over the forecast period. The incidence data variation is also attributable to demographic factors.