Soft Tissue Sarcomas

The first step to diagnosis is the evaluation of the patient’s medical history and a thorough clinical examination. However, when a lump is present, imaging tests are important to assist with diagnosis and so-called staging. Imaging processes create internal body images. There are different types of medical imaging methods: Traditional x-rays: They can rule out…

Regular follow-up care aims at identifying potential relapse (= recurrence) or the development of metastases as early as possible. In most cases, these situations arise in the first two years after primary therapy, although monitoring can continue for ten years afterwards. Follow-up care focuses on providing accurate analysis of local findings, as well as looking for…

All currently available drug therapies in soft tissue sarcomas have been tested in clinical studies in order to be approved today. These clinical studies lead to progress in sarcoma therapy and improved outlook for today’s patients. Controlled clinical studies are essential for determining the value of new treatments and their influence on the quality of…

There are several treatment options for soft tissue sarcomas, which are chosen depending on the sarcoma subtype (type) and the stage of the disease (localized/advanced). In general, the treatment of soft-tissue sarcomas are “multi-modal”. This simply means that different therapy modalities are combined in incremental, alternating, and sometimes simultaneous ways. Especially if the tumor has…

Sarcomas are often diagnosed (too) late – the disease is often quite advanced and/or has already spread to other parts of the body including critical organs (metastatic disease). One reason is that early stage sarcomas lack distinct symptoms that would potentially allow an early diagnosis. Another reason is that sarcomas are often misdiagnosed and treated…