July 13: World Sarcoma Day

Soft tissue sarcomas and bone sarcomas

Soft tissue sarcomas are those derived from the body's soft tissues such as muscles, tendons, blood vessels, or adipose tissue. Bone sarcomas are those that come mainly from bone cells, osteosarcoma being the most common. It usually occurs in children aged 10 to 14 years and, in very rare cases, in adults over 40, affecting mainly long-growing bones (femur, tibia, humerus). The most frequent locations are the knees (distal femur and proximal tibia) and the shoulder (proximal humerus).

According to the Oncopenic Register of Argentina (ROHA) in Argentina, between 1,300 and 1,400 children are diagnosed in one year. and 4.7% of these pediatric patients have bone tumors, osteosarcoma being the most common malignancy. Osteosarcoma is a very aggressive disease, a fifth of patients have detectable lung metastases at the time of diagnosis (1).

Their most common clinical presentation is pain, swelling and fractures (2,3). "Patients are often diagnosed late because these symptoms are attributed to pain due to growth or sport, so it is very important that we work to promote disease awareness, early diagnosis, and access. to appropriate treatment, avoiding worsening of the prognosis, "said Dr. Carla Amigo

In the case of osteosarcoma, treatment usually involves surgical resection (excision) of the tumor with the combination chemotherapy before and after surgery to prevent cancer The use of chemotherapy after surgery is mainly to reduce the probability of metastasis.For these cases, it is advisable to combine the treatment with specific active components such as mifamurtide, because when it is used in conjunction with postoperative chemotherapy, it helps to reduce the risk of metastasis in eliminating micro-metastases in the lung (4).

"Society continues to build an organization focused on patients, families and physicians, developing and supporting initiatives that contribute to the knowledge and understanding of this disease," concludes the doctor. :

ROHA Register

Picci P. Orphanet J Rare Dis 2007; 2: 6.

WebMD: http://www.webmd.com/cancer/sarcoma

Meyers.P., Expert Rev. Anticancer Ther.9 (8) 1035-1049 (2009)

Source: Takeda