What Are Sarcomas?
Sarcomas are malignant tumors that develop in the bones and their surrounding connective tissue.
Not all soft tissue tumors are cancerous. However, soft tissue sarcomas are malignant tumors that can develop anywhere from fat, muscle, nerve, fibrous tissues surrounding joints, blood vessel or deep skin tissues. Most soft tissue sarcomas in adults begin in the arms and legs.
How Are Soft Tissue Sarcomas Diagnosed?
Soft tissue sarcomas usually appear as a lump or mass, but they rarely cause pain, swelling or other symptoms. While a given lump or mass might not be a sarcoma it could be a different type of cancer, or another problem. That’s why we use CT scan, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and biopsy to determine whether or not a soft tissue tumor is cancerous.
Surgery is the most common treatment for adult soft-tissue sarcoma. For some soft-tissue sarcomas, removal of the tumor in surgery may be the only treatment needed.
