Sarcoma or soft tissue sarcoma is one rare kind of cancer that develops in the tissues that connect, surround, and support other parts of the body. This involves joint linings, tendons, nerves, vessels, blood, fat and muscle. There are more than 50 types in sarcoma, where certain types have more possibilities of affecting the children, while certain other types adults. These tumours are usually very difficult to identify through diagnosis as they generally get diagnosed as many other kinds of growths.
Soft sarcoma may happen to any part of human body, however the predominant types are in abdomen, legs and arms. Even though physicians may recommend radiation plus chemotherapy, based on the location, type, size, and aggressiveness, removing the sore through surgery is the common procedure.
Sarcoma may or may not show signs of it in its nascent stages. However, with its growth it could cause a noticeable swelling or lump followed by a tumour pressure on the muscles and nerves, and pain.
You would need to consult an expert physician, if you find lump increasing in size and tending to become painful.
Causes
Due to DNA mutations caused by the developing of cancer cells, the sarcoma cells grow and gradually divide uncontrollably. The accumulating mutated cells from tumour that develops to invade the structures close by along with abnormal cells spreading across the body can cause sarcoma.
The kinds of cells that develop genetic mutations will identify the type of sarcoma in an individual. For instance, angiosarcoma starts with growing in the lining of our blood vessels. Another type, the liposarcoma comes from the fat cells. Certain types of sarcoma include:
- Pleomorphic sarcoma
- Solitary fibrous types
- Rhabdomyosarcoma
- Myxofibrocircoma
- Peripheral nerve sheath tumour that turns malignant
- Liposarcoma
- Leiomyosarcoma
- Kaposi’s sarcoma
- Epitheloid sarcoma
- Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans
- Angiosarcoma
- Synovial sarcoma
- Pleomorphic sarcoma
Risks Pertaining to the Condition
Those factors that can increase condition include:
Inherited syndromes: You could inherit this condition genetically from your parents. Those genetic conditions that increase the risk could be Werner syndrome, tuberous sclerosis, neurofibromatosis, familial, adenomatous polyposis, Li-Fraumeni syndrome.
Chemical exposure: If you are exposed to some chemicals, like dioxin, arsenic, herbicides, etc. your risk of soft tissue sarcoma becomes higher.
Exposure to radiation: In case you have taken radiation in the past can increase the risk of developing sarcomas.
Diagnosis
In case your physician thinks you are suffering from this condition, you would probably need complete tests and examination, including few samples of cells around the tumour region, often termed as biopsy. Imaging tests like CT scan, an MRI or ultrasound so that the inside of the patient’s body can be checked.
Treatment
Numerous factors decide how the sarcoma would be treated – which part of your body is affected, the stage of development, whether or not your tumour has spread, if so to what extent, if it has spread to other parts of the body.
Through surgery, the tumour would be taken out of your body. In maximum cases the physician just removes the cancer cells, without the requirement of amputation.
Through radiation, the tumour could be shrunk rather than doing surgery. Chemotherapy is mostly the first treatment in case the cancer has gone astray and spread.
Newer forms of treatment are targeted therapies that use manmade antibodies from our immune system so that the growing cancer cells could be blocked, while letting the normal cells intact and undamaged.
Suresh Hospital’s Sarcoma Treatment
Surgery alone can cure the condition, in case the tumour is of low-grade, indicating that the cancer isn’t likely to spread in other portions of the body. However, the more aggressive sarcomas are difficult to treat.
Suresh Hospital’s orthopaedic ../department has been equipped with the best of surgery and lab equipments that provide good care and cure. The success rate of curing patients, especially suffering from osteosarcoma lies between 60 and 75 percent, in case of the condition not spreading outside the particular region.