What is a soft tissue sarcoma?
Ok, So Cancer is a problem that affects millions, if not billions of people. So, let’s stick to the facts! Cancer starts when a group of cells decide they want to get a bit out of control, aggressive cancers are just a cellular party gone horribly wrong! Cancer can affect almost any cells that are in the body! Almost everyone has the potential to get cancer, but most will be lucky enough to avoid it, or have it treated early.
A Sarcoma is a type of cancer, but only grows, well develops in certain tissue in the body, like bones and muscle. Bone and soft tissue sarcomas are the main types of sarcoma and affect the majority with them.
Soft tissue sarcomas can develop in any soft tissue in any part of the body, like fat, muscle, nerves, fibrous tissue, blood vessels, or deep skin tissues. They can also be found in other parts of the body, these areas are the legs, arms, trunk (lower torso area), head, neck, and internal organs. Oh, I forgot to mention the abdominal cavity.
I should stress that sarcomas are not common tumours, and most cancers are a type known as a carcinoma. I am unlucky enough to have both mixed into one! Go team Dan!
As far as I can tell there are over 50 different types of sarcoma and soft tissue sarcoma. Sarcomas often start in the bones, and for children they tend to be the Ewing Family of Tumours.
There are so many types of soft tissue sarcoma, and surprisingly not all of them are cancerous! When the term sarcoma is used it means the tumour is malignant (Cancerous), some act like cancer but are not and these are known as intermediate soft tissue tumours.
There is loads of info I need to add to this but I am having it fact checked by a specialist first.
