July has been proposed as Sarcoma Awareness Month. To support this cause, we wanted to tell you a little more about this cancer.
What is Sarcoma?
Overall sarcomas comprise less than 1% of adults’ cancers and nearly 21% of children’s’ cancers. A sarcoma is a type of cancer the develops from certain tissues such as bone or muscle. The two main types of sarcoma are bone sarcomas and soft tissue sarcomas. Soft tissue sarcomas develop in soft tissue such as fat, muscles, nervous, blood vessels or deep skin tissues. While they can be found anywhere in the body, they are most commonly found in the arms and legs. For both men and children, it is estimated that in 2014 there will be about 12,000 new soft tissue sarcomas diagnosed overall and about 3,000 new cases of bone sarcoma. As you can see, sarcomas are not very common, the more common kinds of tumors are called carcinomas; many of which are benign (not cancerous). When the term sarcoma is used, however, it means the tumor is in fact malignant (cancer).
For more information, visit the Sarcoma Alliance at http://sarcomaalliance.org/
References:
http://sarcomahelp.org/#tpm1_2
http://www.cancer.org/cancer/bonecancer/detailedguide/bone-cancer-what-is-bone-cancer
http://www.cancer.org/cancer/sarcoma-adultsofttissuecancer/