Soft tissues include tendons, fat, blood vessels, nerves, and muscles. Soft tissue sarcomas are tumors that can form anywhere in the body. As they grow larger, the tumor can press on organs in the body. Symptoms include the formation of lumps, swelling, pain and trouble breathing.
Types of Soft Tissue Sarcomas
Soft tissue sarcomas are classified as follows:
- Alveolar soft part sarcoma
- Angiomatoid fibrous histiocytoma
- Angiosarcoma
- Benign soft tissue sarcoma
- Clear cell sarcoma (malignant melanoma of soft parts)
- Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans
- Desmoid fibromatosis
- Desmoplastic small cell tumor
- Ectomesenchymoma
- Epithelioid sarcoma
- Ewing's sarcoma/PNET
- Extrarenal rhabdoid tumor
- Extraskeletal mesenchymal chondrosarcoma
- Extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma
- Extraskeletal osteosarcoma
- Fibromyxoid sarcoma
- Fibrosarcoma
- Gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST)
- Hemangioendothelioma
- Hemangiopericytoma
- Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor
- Intimal sarcoma
- Kaposi's sarcoma
- Leiomyoma
- Leiomyosarcoma
- Lipoma
- Liposarcoma
- Malignant fibrous histiocytoma (MFH)
- Malignant glomus tumor
- Malignant granular cell tumor
- Malignant melanotic schwannoma
- Malignant mesenchymoma
- Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor
- Malignant tenosynovial giant cell tumor
- Myoepithelioma/mixed tumor of soft tissue
- Myofibroblastic sarcoma
- Myxofibrosarcoma
- Myxoinflammatory fibroblastic sarcoma
- Neurofibrosarcoma
- PEComa
- Rhabdomyosarcoma
- Schwannoma
- Solitary fibrous tumor
- Synovial sarcoma
- Unclassified sarcoma
Soft tissue sarcomas are diagnosed by either an incisional biopsy or core biopsy. An incisional biopsy removes part of a lump or a sample of tissue. A core biopsy removes tissue using a wide needle. The sample is examined to determine the grade and severity of the cancer.
