General principles and classification of soft tissue sarcomas

Abstract

Sarcoma is the general name for tumors arising from all tissues of mesenchymal origin of the body, including bone, cartilage, fat, muscle, blood vessels, fibrous tissue or other connective or supporting tissue. The American Cancer Society estimates for 2023 soft tissue sarcomas in the United States that approximately 13.400 (7.400 in men and 6.000 in women) new soft tissue sarcoma will be diagnosed and approximately 5.140 people (2.720 men and 2.420 women) will die from soft tissue sarcoma. Although some genetic diagnoses and environmental factors associated with sarcoma development have been reported, most sarcomas are sporadic and idiopathic. Classification of soft tissue and bone tumors (vol. 3) 5th edition published by World Health Organization (WHO) in 2020. With the last classification, it has been reported that there are more than 100 different histological and molecular subtypes of soft tissue sarcoma, and each subtype exhibits variable clinical behavior. Soft tissue tumor classification is generally based on cell type. For this, morphological, immunohistochemical and genetic features are examined. In addition to tumor site and grade, the histological subtype of soft tissue sarcoma is an important prognostic factor.