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Information about Sarcoma


Classification & external resources
MeSHD012509
A sarcoma is a cancer of the connective or supportive tissue (bone, cartilage, fat, muscle, blood vessels) and soft tissue. This is in contrast to carcinomas, which are of epithelial origin(breast, colon, pancreas, and others).

Classification

Sarcomas are given a number of different names, based on the type of tissue from which they arise. For example, osteosarcoma arises from bone, chondrosarcoma arises from cartilage, and leiomyosarcoma arises from smooth muscle. Sarcomas strike people in all age ranges, but they are very rare, accounting for only 1% of all cases of cancer.[1] Soft tissue sarcomas, such as leiomyosarcoma, chondrosarcoma, and gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), are more common in adults than in children. GIST is the most common form of sarcoma, with approximately 3000-3500 cases per year in the United States.[2] This should be compared with breast cancer, with approximately 200,000 cases per year in North America.[3] Bone sarcomas, such as osteosarcoma and Ewing's sarcoma, are more common in children than in adults. These tumors most commonly strike adolescents and young adults between the ages of 12 and 25. In addition to being named based on the tissue of origin, sarcomas are also assigned a grade, such as low grade or high grade. Low grade sarcomas are usually treated surgically, although sometimes radiation therapy or chemotherapy are used. High grade sarcomas are more frequently treated with chemotherapy. Since these tumors are more likely to undergo metastasis (spreading to distant sites), these tumors are treated more aggressively. Childhood sarcomas are almost always treated with a combination of surgery and chemotherapy, and radiation is frequently used as well. The recognition that childhood sarcomas are sensitive to chemotherapy has dramatically improved the survival of patients. For example, in the era before chemotherapy, long term survival for patients with localized osteosarcoma was only approximately 20%, but now has risen to 60-70%.[4]

Organizations

Private funding Organizations such as the 'Sarcoma Foundation of America' are working to fund research toward a cure for sarcoma, while other patient-oriented organizations such as the Sarcoma Alliance are working to educate patients about the disease, and still others like the Rare Cancer Alliance are working to give patients online support. The Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative publishes the Electronic Sarcoma Update Newsletterwhich is an online bi-monthly newsletter, containing articles of interest to patients, caregivers, physicians, nurses, and survivors.

Notable patients

Actor Robert Urich had a soft-tissue sarcoma, and died of this disease. Actress Michelle Thomas died from a rare abdominal soft-tissue sarcoma. The most famous victims of this disease are Canadian Terry Fox, who was required to have a leg amputated as treatment, and the Soviet mathematician Nikolai Kochin who perished at the age of 43. Fox subsequently began heroic fundraising efforts towards medical research, which enabled advances that dramatically improved the survivability of the ailment.

Types of sarcoma

(ICD-O codes are provided where available.)

References

1. ^ Borden EC, Baker LH, Bell RS, Bramwell V, Demetri GD, Eisenberg BL, Fletcher CD, Fletcher JA, Ladanyi M, Meltzer P, O'Sullivan B, Parkinson DR, Pisters PW, Saxman S, Singer S, Sundaram M, van Oosterom AT, Verweij J, Waalen J, Weiss SW, Brennan MF. Soft tissue sarcomas of adults: state of the translational science.Clin Cancer Res. 2003 Jun;9(6):1941-56. Review. PMID 12796356
2. ^ Tran T, Davila JA, El-Serag HB. The epidemiology of malignant gastrointestinal stromal tumors: an analysis of 1,458 cases from 1992 to 2000. Am J Gastroenterol 2005;100:162-8. PMID 15654796
3. ^ Smigal C, Jemal A, Ward E, Cokkinides V, Smith R, Howe HL, Thun M. Trends in breast cancer by race and ethnicity: update 2006. CA Cancer J Clin 2006;56:168-83. PMID 16737949
4. ^ Longhi A, Errani C, De Paolis M, Mercuri M, Bacci G. Primary bone osteosarcoma in the pediatric age: state of the art. Cancer Treat Rev. 2006;32:423-36. PMID 16860938

External links

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) is a huge controlled vocabulary (or metadata system) for the purpose of indexing journal articles and books in the life sciences. Created and updated by the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), it is used by the MEDLINE/PubMed
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Connective tissue is one of the four types of tissue in traditional classifications (the others being epithelial, muscle, and nervous tissue.) It is largely a category of exclusion rather than one with a precise definition, but all or most tissues in this category are similarly:
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Bones are rigid organs that form part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They function to move, support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells and store minerals.
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Cartilage is a type of dense connective tissue. It is composed of collagen fibers and/or elastin fibers, and can supply smooth surfaces for the movement of articulating bones.
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Fat

Fat may refer to:
  • Fat, a group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and largely insoluble in water
  • Adipose tissue, an anatomical term for loose connective tissue composed of adipocytes

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MUSCLE (multiple sequence comparison by log-expectation) is public domain, multiple sequence alignment software for protein and nucleotide sequences.
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The blood vessels are part of the cardiovascular system and function to transport blood throughout the body. The most important types, arteries and veins, carry blood away from or towards the heart, respectively.
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In medicine, the term soft tissue refers to tissues that connect, support, or surround other structures and organs of the body. Soft tissue includes muscles, fibrous tissues, fat, blood vessels, and synovial tissues.
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breast refers to the upper ventral region of an animal’s torso, particularly that of mammals, including human beings. The breasts of a female mammal’s body contain the mammary glands, which secrete milk used to feed infants.
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colon is another name for the large intestine. The main function of the colon appears to be extraction of water from feces. In mammals, it consists of the ascending colon, transverse colon, the descending colon, and the sigmoid colon.
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The pancreas is a gland organ in the digestive and endocrine systems of vertebrates<ref name="New Standard" />. It is both exocrine (secreting pancreatic juice containing digestive enzymes) and endocrine (producing several important hormones, including
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Osteosarcoma is the most common type of malignant bone cancer, accounting for 35% of primary bone malignancies. There is a preference for the metaphyseal region of tubular long bones. 50% of cases occur around the knee.
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Bones are rigid organs that form part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They function to move, support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells and store minerals.
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Chondrosarcoma
Classification & external resources

ICD-9 170.9
ICD-O: 9220/3-9240/3

A chondrosarcoma is a particular cancer of the bone. Chondrosarcoma is a cartilage based tumor and is in a category of cancers called sarcomas.
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Cartilage is a type of dense connective tissue. It is composed of collagen fibers and/or elastin fibers, and can supply smooth surfaces for the movement of articulating bones.
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MeSH D007890 Leiomyosarcoma is a type of sarcoma which is a neoplasm of smooth muscle. (When benign, it is called a leiomyoma.) Smooth muscle cells make up the involuntary muscles, which are found in most parts of the body: in uterus, stomach and intestines, walls of all
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Smooth muscle is a type of non-striated muscle, found within the "walls" of hollow organs and elsewhere like the bladder and abdominal cavity, the uterus, male and female reproductive tracts, the gastrointestinal tract, the respiratory tract, the vasculature, the skin and the
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MeSH D007890 Leiomyosarcoma is a type of sarcoma which is a neoplasm of smooth muscle. (When benign, it is called a leiomyoma.) Smooth muscle cells make up the involuntary muscles, which are found in most parts of the body: in uterus, stomach and intestines, walls of all
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Chondrosarcoma
Classification & external resources

ICD-9 170.9
ICD-O: 9220/3-9240/3

A chondrosarcoma is a particular cancer of the bone. Chondrosarcoma is a cartilage based tumor and is in a category of cancers called sarcomas.
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MeSH D046152

In medical oncology, gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are a rare tumor of the gastrointestinal tract (1-3% of all gastrointestinal malignancies).

GIST is a form of connective tissue cancer, or sarcoma.
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Osteosarcoma is the most common type of malignant bone cancer, accounting for 35% of primary bone malignancies. There is a preference for the metaphyseal region of tubular long bones. 50% of cases occur around the knee.
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Ewing's sarcoma
Classification & external resources

ICD-9 170.9
ICD-O: 9260/3

DiseasesDB 4604
MedlinePlus 001302
eMedicine ped/2589  

Ewing's sarcoma is the common name for primitive neuroectodermal tumor.
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Radiation therapy (or radiotherapy) is the medical use of ionizing radiation as part of cancer treatment to control malignant cells (not to be confused with radiology, the use of radiation in medical imaging and diagnosis).
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Chemotherapy is the use of chemical substances to treat disease. In its modern-day use, it refers to cytotoxic drugs used to treat cancer or the combination of these drugs into a standardized treatment regimen.
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Chemotherapy is the use of chemical substances to treat disease. In its modern-day use, it refers to cytotoxic drugs used to treat cancer or the combination of these drugs into a standardized treatment regimen.
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Metastasis (Greek: displacement, μετά=next + στάσις=placement, plural: metastases), sometimes abbreviated mets, is the spread of a disease from one organ or part to another non-contiguous organ or part.
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surgery (from the Greek χειρουργική meaning "hand work") is the medical specialty that treats diseases or injuries by operative manual and instrumental treatment.
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Chemotherapy is the use of chemical substances to treat disease. In its modern-day use, it refers to cytotoxic drugs used to treat cancer or the combination of these drugs into a standardized treatment regimen.
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