Sarcomas: Rare, tough, treatable
Posted: July 17, 2015
Sarcomas are rare forms of cancer, accounting for less than 5 percent of all cancers treated at Marshfield Clinic, but they can be among the most painful.
July is Sarcoma Awareness Month, a time to call attention to a form of cancer that can locate in bones or soft tissues. Treatments are often effective and well-tolerated, especially when compared to the past when the only available treatment for many sarcomas was amputation of a leg or arm.
Two types of bone cancer
A malignant tumor that begins in bone tissue is called primary bone cancer. Cancer that spreads to the bones from other parts of the body – breast, lung or prostate – is called metastatic cancer. Primary bone cancer is far less common than metastatic cancer, according to Dr. Seth Fagbemi, a Marshfield Clinic oncologist/hematologist."If a patient has a primary tumor of the bone, we can assume it won't be from someplace else, so surgically removing it is a reasonable operation," Fagbemi said. "But if a patient has cancer originating from somewhere else rather than the bone, removing it from the bone is unlikely to be part of the treatment. Surgery is typically not an option in that case but the patient's pain will be treated and it may involve radiation."Most patients with bone cancer report very sharp pain as well as swelling and deformity. For children under 20, about 15 percent of cancer diagnoses are sarcomas. Although rare, approximately 14,000 new cases of sarcoma are diagnosed each year in the United States.