Soft tissue sarcoma

Abstract

The term sarcoma etymologically means a tumour of the flesh. Any malignancy arising from the muscle layer of the body integument is technically a sarcoma. The common term used, soft tissue sarcoma, is a misnomer as the tumour is rarely soft and it is a descriptive term with no scientifi c basis. The word sarcoma encompasses a wide variety of tumours of the integument, not just those arising from muscle but all structures that make up this mesoderm layer. In addition certain organs in the body have sarcomatous elements, e.g. the genitourinary system, the biliary tree, the gastrointestinal tract as well as the kidney can develop malignancies that are sarcomatous. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.