The overall survival for people with soft tissue sarcomas rose from about 40 percent in 1968 to about 70 percent in 1989. In the same years, survival for sarcomas of bone rose from less than 20 percent to over 70 percent.
In 1968, the usual treatment for tumors that began in an arm or leg was amputation of the limb. Now it is possible to preserve the limb in more than 90 percent of sarcomas in an arm or leg by using limb-sparing surgery followed by radiotherapy (although for osteosarcomas, the possibility of sparing the limb is not as high).
Types There are at least 56 different types of soft tissue sarcomas named according to the normal
tissue from which the tumor is derived. Many have characteristic patterns of growth and spread.
Specialists use the specific type to help plan work-up, tests and treatment, but the likely behavior of the tumor is more often related to its grade. There are three tumor categories related to the tumor's grade or activity as defined by the percentage of dividing cells (mitotic rate)—low grade, intermediate grade and high grade. The last is the most highly malignant .
The four common types of bone sarcomas are osteosarcoma, Ewing's sarcoma, chondrosarcoma and fibrosarcoma. All are usually high grade except chondrosarcoma.
How It Spreads Sarcomas may spread early to adjacent tissues without being confined by a shell or capsule, as is common with other types of tumors. If this capsule were present, it would tend to delay local spread and
