What is heterogeneous soft tissue?

What is heterogeneous soft tissue?

Introduction. Soft tissue tumors are a heterogeneous group of benign and malignant lesions that develop from various nonepithelial, extraskeletal elements, including adipose tissue, smooth and skeletal muscle, tendon, cartilage, fibrous tissue, blood vessels, and lymphatic structures.

Does heterogeneous mean cancer?

Cancer is a heterogeneous disease. Practically from the moment pathologists first looked at human cancers under the microscope, they saw that differing histologic appearances could define distinct subtypes of cancers from the same primary site of origin.

What are the chances of surviving from a soft tissue sarcoma?

Overall, the 5-year survival rate for soft tissue sarcomas is about 65%. The 5-year survival rate for cancer that has reached nearby organs or lymph nodes is about 50%. Once soft tissue sarcoma has spread to other parts of the body, the 5-year survival rate is about 18%.

Is soft tissue sarcoma A cancer?

Soft tissue sarcoma is a broad term for cancers that start in soft tissues (muscle, tendons, fat, lymph and blood vessels, and nerves). These cancers can develop anywhere in the body but are found mostly in the arms, legs, chest, and abdomen.

Are sarcomas heterogeneous?

Soft tissue sarcomas show tremendous heterogeneity both in clinical and genomic settings and thus should be treated separately. Targeted therapy based on tumor types and genomic findings showed promising results.

What does heterogeneous mean in medical terms?

Heterogeneous refers to a structure with dissimilar components or elements, appearing irregular or variegated. For example, a dermoid cyst has heterogeneous attenuation on CT. It is the antonym for homogeneous, meaning a structure with similar components.

Can benign tumors be heterogeneous?

In contrast, 91 of the 164 benign lesions (56%) were heterogeneous on T2WI. Univariate analysis showed that depth, size and heterogeneity on T2WI differed significantly between benign and malignant masses.

What does heterogeneous mean medically?

Is sarcoma always terminal?

A sarcoma is considered stage IV when it has spread to distant parts of the body. Stage IV sarcomas are rarely curable. But some patients may be cured if the main (primary) tumor and all of the areas of cancer spread (metastases) can be removed by surgery.

What is the life expectancy for soft tissue sarcoma?

5-year relative survival rates for soft tissue sarcoma