REVIEW
of THE LITERATURE
Background
The large majority of
soft tissue tumours are benign, with a very high cure rate after surgical
excision. Malignant mesenchymal neoplasms amount to less than 1% of the overall
human burden of malignant tumours but they are life threatening and may pose a
significant diagnostic and therapeutic challenge since there are more than 50
histological subtypes of STS, which are often associ- ated with unique
clinical, prognostic and therapeutic features. Over the past decade, our
understanding of these neo plasms has increased significantly, both from a histopathological
and genetic point of view. The close interaction of surgical pathologists,
surgeons and oncologists has brought about a significant increase in
disease-free survival for tumours which were previously almost invariably fatal,
the overall 5-year survival rate for STS in the limbs now being in the order of
65-75%. Careful physical examination and radiographic evaluation to evaluate
the size, depth and location of the mass, along with signs of neurovascular
involvement are essential for designing the best ther- apeutic approach
Epidemiology
Benign mesenchymal
tumours outnum-ber sarcomas by a factor of at least 100. annual clinical
incidence (number of new patients consulting a doctor) of benign soft tissue
tumours has been estimated as up to 3000/million population whereas the annual
incidence of soft tissue sarcoma is around 30/million i.e. less than 1 percent
of all malignant tumours. There are no data to indicate a change in the
incidence of sarcoma nor are there significant geographic differences.
