Soft Tissue and Bone Sarcomas

Soft tissue sarcomas and bone sarcomas form a highly heterogeneous group of tumors with an overall low incidence. The treatment of sarcomas falls largely into the field of pediatric oncology. In adulthood, sarcomas account for less than 1% of cancers. Soft tissue sarcomas account for less than 0.6% of all malignancies. The most common are high-grade undifferentiated sarcoma, liposarcoma, synovial sarcoma and leiomyosarcoma. Less common are tumors of the peripheral nerve sheaths, clear cell sarcoma, alveolar sarcoma, angiosarcoma and others.

The current WHO classification includes more than 50 subtypes of sarcoma – more than 20 subtypes are bone sarcomas. Bone sarcomas accounted for only 0.2% of all cancers. Osteogenic sarcoma (OSA) and Ewing’s sarcoma (ES) have maximum incidence in the second decade of a person’s life. The most common bone tumor in adulthood is chondrosarcoma (ChoSA). Chordoma, poorly differentiated pleomorphic bone sarcoma, bone sarcoma, bone fibrosarcoma and giant cell bone tumor are extremely rare. Histology-based classification in sarcoma is necessary due to highly variable biological behavior.