Soft tissue sarcoma is a large group of tumors of different origins. These neoplasms can develop from fat, muscle, nerve sheaths, fibrous tissue, blood vessels, or deep layers of the skin. Depending on the origin, they have different names: fibrosarcoma, angiosarcoma, epithelioid sarcoma, etc. To treat the disease, doctors abroad use surgical interventions, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. Such innovative techniques as limb chemoperfusion, proton therapy, and targeted therapy are also available abroad.
Content
- Surgical treatment
- Radiation therapy
- Other treatment methods
- Relapse treatment
- Where to undergo treatment
Surgical treatment
Surgery is the main treatment for soft tissue sarcoma. This is the only method that can cure the disease.
The doctor removes the entire tumor, including healthy tissue. The material is then sent to the histological examination. For the successful treatment outcome, it is important that there are no cancer cells at the resection margins. If they are found, either repeated operation or radiation therapy is required to reduce the risk of recurrence. If the margins are clean, it is highly likely that there will be no relapse. For these patients, surgery may be the only treatment needed.
Soft tissue sarcomas often develop on the limbs. Previously, in such situations, doctors performed amputations. Today, they more and more often resort to the use of grafts and implants to save the limb. These surgical interventions are complex and require long-term rehabilitation, but they help avoid disability.
Sometimes a sarcoma can be located in a place where it is impossible to remove a tumor with a large capture of healthy tissue, for example, in the abdominal cavity. In this case, the sarcoma is resected, and the surrounding tissues are irradiated with radiation. These patients usually require chemotherapy.
With enlarged lymph nodes detected, lymph node dissection is performed. This surgical procedure involves the removal of regional lymph nodes.
The surgical interventions are most successful in the early stages of sarcoma. Nonetheless, they can be performed even in some patients with 4 stage soft tissue sarcoma. Medical specialists abroad perform combined surgical interventions to remove tumors and distant metastatic foci. The best results are obtained in patients with single metastases in the lungs. Some patients can be completely cured.
Radiation therapy
Radiation therapy may be required in the following cases:
- Treatment of inoperable sarcoma, for example, those localized in the head or neck.
- Shrinking the tumor prior to its surgical removal.
- Reduction of the risk of recurrence after surgical resection.
- Local control of recurrent tumors.
- Local control of distant metastatic foci, most often in the brain.
Doctors abroad use state-of-the-art linear accelerators, which allow for performing irradiation with a minimum risk of post-radiation complications.
There are also available innovative methods of irradiation. These are as follows:
- Proton therapy is safer, since protons release radiation only inside the tumor, and almost do not damage healthy tissues along the path of the rays.
- Intraoperative radiation therapy helps deliver a large dose of radiation to the tumor immediately after resection, before the surgical wound is closed.
- Brachytherapy allows for the administration of radioactive substances into the tumor through catheters, which are implanted during surgery to remove the sarcoma.
Other treatment methods
For sarcoma of soft tissues in adults, isolated limb chemoperfusion is used. Doctors can conduct it if the tumor is localized on the arm or leg. The treatment requires a surgical intervention. The vessels of the limb are disconnected from the general blood flow and connected to the apparatus. The blood is saturated with a large number of chemotherapy drugs and heated. The drug-laden blood circulates in the extremities for an hour and a half, destroying cancer cells without causing systemic side effects. After the completion of the procedure, the limb is returned to the human circulatory system.
After surgery, sometimes before surgery, as well as in the case of an inoperable tumor, systemic chemotherapy for soft tissue sarcoma with cytostatics is used. At the advanced stages of pathology, doctors abroad use targeted therapy. It is selected individually, depending on the molecular status of the sarcoma.
Relapse treatment
The tumor may develop again after treatment. A relapse can be both local (in the area of the primary tumor) and from metastases.
Surgical treatment is not always possible. It is usually used for local recurrence. The neoplasm is removed, and then external beam radiation therapy is carried out, if it has not been done before. However, if the patient has already received external beam radiation therapy for soft tissue sarcoma, this procedure is no longer done. Brachytherapy is used instead. This therapeutic manipulation implies contact irradiation of tissues with radioactive seeds implanted into them.
In case of relapse from distant metastases, systemic therapy is mainly used. Chemotherapy and targeted therapy can also be carried out. Single lung metastases can be removed surgically. With metastatic brain lesions, the main method of local control is radiation therapy.
Where to undergo treatment
To benefit from the highest level of medical care, you can undergo treatment of soft tissue sarcoma abroad. The specialists of the Booking Health company will select for you the best hospitals for the treatment of soft tissue sarcoma abroad and take care of the organization of your trip.
There are several reasons for you to undergo sarcoma treatment abroad:
- When the tumor is localized on the extremities, doctors avoid amputations. Limb function can be restored with the help of endoprostheses.
- Surgical treatment can be provided even for stage 4 sarcoma, with the presence of single metastases in the lungs.
- Performance of minimally invasive surgical interventions to remove tumors and metastases in the abdominal and thoracic cavities: laparoscopic, thoracoscopic, robot-assisted.
- The latest types of radiation therapy for sarcoma are available, including proton therapy, intraoperative radiation, radiosurgery, brachytherapy.
- Individual development of drug treatment regimen, depending on the histological type of sarcoma and the stage of the disease, the patient's health status and the experience of previous therapy.
- Use of the very new drugs for targeted therapy at the last stage of sarcoma.
Please leave your request on the Booking Health website. Our specialist will contact you within just a few hours. If you book a medical care program via our service, the cost of the surgery will be lower due to the lack of additional coefficients for foreign patients. You can compare prices in different hospitals in order to book your treatment at the best price.
Authors:
The article was edited by medical experts, board certified doctors Dr. Vadim Zhiliuk and Dr. Sergey Pashchenko. For the treatment of the conditions referred to in the article, you must consult a doctor; the information in the article is not intended for self-medication!
Sources:
European Society for Medical Oncology
National Cancer Institute
MedicineNet
