Soft Tissue Sarcoma and Tumors of Connective Tissue

Definition

Sarcoma is a malignant tumor that can derive from fat tissue, muscles, blood vessels and bones. There are tumors that could appear in any body site.

Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) consist of 78% of all sarcomas, while bone sarcoma makes the rest 22% of those tumors. They usually develop in older age except for Ewing Sarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma.

Causes

Most causes are unknown. There are a few inherited diseases that predispose to sarcoma growth like Neurofibromatosis and Li Fraumeni and Gardner syndromes and Retinoblastoma. Radiotherapy can cause STS.

Symptoms

Sarcomas usually present like painless lumps 

Diagnosis

Initial diagnosis occurs usually with CT and MRI. The malignancy is confirmed with biopsy that requires careful planning by a specialist surgent.

Treatment

• Surgery: surgical excision remains the treatment of choice. Sarcomas usually relapse locally. They may develop metastases (usually to the lung).
• Radiotherapy: It usually contributes to the local control of the tumor.
• Chemotherapy: It aims at prevention or treatment of metastatic disease, and may also be used in an attempt to shrink the tumor and prevent amputation. Targeted treatment is also used in some sarcoma types.