Sarcoma - Cancer of the Connective Tissues Sarcomas are cancers that arise from cells in the body's connective tissues. There are hundreds of different kinds of sarcomas, but as a whole sarcomas are a very rare kind of cancer - making up less than 2% of cancers in the UK yearly. "! Sarcomas can generally be split into two types - soft tissue sarcomas and bone sarcomas. Soff tissue sarcomas are 4 to 5 times more common than bone sarcomas, but both are extremely aggressive and usually present a low survival rate (approximately 20-30% when metastatic disease is present ”). Prevalence and Survival Rate Sarcomas are prevalent in children, with 370 children being diagnosed with sarcomas each year in the United Kingdom (around 5,300 people are diagnosed annually, meaning that children make up approximately 6.98% of all cases). In the United States, 20% of all childhood cancer cases are sarcomas - a high contrast to the 1% of sarcoma cancer cases in adults. There isn't much research on sarcomas and therefore the exact cause of them is unknown. However, despite the low efficacy of current treatments (sarcomas being cured by surgery 20% of the time, and by chemotherapy or radiation another 50-55% of the time"), the 5-year survival rate in the US is 65%. In the UK this rate was slightly lower, with an overall survival rate of 53% for soft tissue sarcoma and an overall survival rate of 62% for bone sarcoma, #51 Treatment for Sarcomas Treatment is usually decided by the patient and their multidisciplinary team (MDT), as there are many ways sarcomas can be treated and each patient is different. Commonly, the first treatment method is surgery to remove the sarcoma. The surgeon will remove the tumour and an area around it in an attempt to prevent any cancer cells that cannot be seen from spreading. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy can be used in conjunction with or instead of surgery. Radiotherapy may be used before surgery to attempt to make the tumour smaller, or after the surgery to prevent the cancer from returning and kill any remaining cancer cells that may not have been removed during surgery. Chemotherapy is very rarely used - it's usual use is to treat bone sarcomas before or after surgery but itis also used when surgery is not possible or not all of the cancer can be removed. Not all soft tissue sarcomas respond well to chemotherapy, so it's only used on soft tissue sarcomas that respond well to it. ©References ! What is sarcoma? (2022, August 23). Sarcoma UK. Retrieved November 10, 2022, from https://sarcoma.org.uk/about-sarcoma/what-is-sarcoma/ ®! Voltan, K., Baptista, A. M., & Etchebehere, M. (2020, September 25). Extremities Soft Tissue Sarcomas, more Common and as Dangerous as Bone Sarcomas (translated to English from Portuguese). PubMed. https://pubmed.ncbi.nim.nih.gov/34483383/ "I Patient resources- What is sarcoma? Treatments & more. (2022, January 5). Sarcoma Foundation of America. Retrieved November 10, 2022, from https://www.curesarcoma.org/sarcoma-resourcesipatient-resources/ “Soft Tissue Sarcoma Survival Statistics. (2020, March 25). Cancer Research UK. Retrieved November 10, 2022, from https://www.cancerresearchuk. org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/statistics-by- cancer-typelsoft-tissue-sarcoma/survival ®1Bone Sarcoma Statistics. (2022, May 31). Cancer Research UK. Retrieved November 10, 2022, from https://www.cancerresearchuk org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/statistics-by- cancer-type/bone-sarcoma Treatment types. (2022, October 31). Sarcoma UK. Retrieved November 10, 2022, from https://sarcoma.org.uk/about-sarcomaltreating-sarcoma/treatment-types/