A family of rare cancers
Soft tissues include structures such as muscle, fat, blood vessels, nerves, tendons, and tissue around joints. Sarcomas can also begin in bone. Two people described as having sarcoma may have different diseases that behave differently and are treated differently.
How diagnosis is established
Evaluation may involve medical history, examination, imaging, and biopsy. A biopsy removes cells or tissue for a pathologist to examine and is often central to confirming a cancer diagnosis. The tests needed depend on the tumor and the person’s situation.
Words that may appear in a report
- Subtype
- The specific pathologic kind of sarcoma.
- Grade
- A description of how abnormal the cells appear and, for some sarcomas, how likely the tumor may be to grow or spread.
- Stage
- A way of describing the extent of cancer. Staging systems vary.
- Margins
- The edges of tissue removed during surgery, examined for cancer cells.
- Metastasis
- Cancer that has spread from where it began to another part of the body.
Ask your clinician what each term means for your exact subtype rather than relying on a general definition alone.
Treatment is individualized
Depending on the diagnosis and situation, treatment conversations may include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, targeted treatment, immunotherapy, clinical trials, symptom management, or a combination. Not every approach is used for every sarcoma.