BACKGROUND: Ewing sarcoma is extremely rare in people from East and Southeast 
Asia.
METHODS: The records of 12 patients diagnosed with primary Ewing sarcoma and 
treated at our institution from 1997 to 2009 were retrospectively reviewed.
RESULTS: There were seven male and five female patients and their mean age at 
diagnosis was 22 years (range, 12-48 years). Two patients (16.7%) had distant 
metastasis at diagnosis. The primary tumor sites were the trunk in seven 
patients (58.3%) and the extremities in five patients (41.7%). Eleven patients 
received neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by wide excision surgery, and then 
adjuvant chemotherapy. One patient received only chemotherapy without surgical 
intervention due to poor cardiac and pulmonary function. At a mean follow-up of 
33 months, the 2-year overall survival rate (OS) was 45.5%. Distant metastasis 
was the only statistically significant prognostic factor of OS in our study. The 
2-year OS rates of patients with lung metastasis and without lung metastasis 
were 0% and 42.9%, respectively (p = 0.021). The t(11;22)(q24:q12) translocation 
was present in all patients in our series.
CONCLUSION: We confirmed that distant metastases is highly predictive of a poor 
outcome, and that the t(11;22)(q24:q12) translocation was present in all 
patients in our series.