July: Sarcoma Awareness Month

July is Sarcoma Awareness Month.

Sarcoma Awareness Month is a way to create public awareness of sarcoma. Moroever, this month, is a way to stand in solidarity with the sarcoma community, which includes health professionals, researchers, patients, and their loved ones.

Sarcoma Awareness Month runs for the whole of July. Sarcomas are rare cancers that develop in the muscle, bones, nerves, cartilage, tendons, blood vessels, and fatty and fibrous tissues. They commonly affect the upper and lower limbs and trunk. Also, they appear in the gastrointestinal tube such as the stomach and intestines, and in the female reproductive system.

Sarcoma

The word sarcoma is derived from the Greek sarkoma “fleshy excrescence or substance”, itself from sarx meaning “flesh”.

A sarcoma is a malignant tumor, a type of cancer that arises from transformed cells of mesenchymal origin. Connective tissue is a broad term that includes bone, cartilage, fat, vascular, or hematopoietic tissues, and sarcomas can arise in any of these types of tissues. As a result, there are many subtypes of sarcoma, which are classified based on the specific tissue and type of cell from which the tumor originates. Sarcomas are primary connective tissue tumors, meaning that they arise in connective tissues. This is in contrast to secondary connective tissue tumors, which occur when cancer from elsewhere in the body spreads to the connective tissue.

The Most Common Subtypes of Sarcoma

There are two main types of sarcoma. The most common is soft tissue sarcoma, which develops in the soft tissues of the body, usually the muscles or blood vessels. The other type of sarcoma is less common and is known as bone sarcoma, because it forms in the bone

• Osteosarcoma: Develops in cells that form bones
• Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFSP) : Develops in the skin
• Fibrosarcoma (fibroblastic sarcoma): Develops in fibrous tissue
• Chondrosarcoma: Develops in cartilage
• Ewing’s sarcoma: Develops in bone cells or immature soft tissue
• Rhabdomyosarcoma: Develops in cells that form skeletal muscles
• Liposarcoma: Develops in fatty tissue
• Synovial sarcoma: Develops in the cells near the tendons and joints
• Pleomorphic sarcoma: Develops in the soft tissues of the abdomen, arms, and legs
• Gastrointestinal stromal tumor: Develops in the cells that line the gastrointestinal tract
• Kaposi’s sarcoma: Develops in the cells that line lymph or blood vessels
• Leiomyosarcoma: Develops in the muscles of organs in the pelvis and abdomen
• Angiosarcoma: Develops in the inner lining of the blood vessels

Let’s be aware of the disease and offer support to those suffering from Sarcoma!