System : Soft tissues
Introduction
Soft tissue tumors are rare and most are benign. Sarcomas represent 1% of these tumors with about 60 to 70 new cases per million inhabitants and per year.
They occur at any age and location in the body.
Their prognosis depends mainly on histotype, grade and quality of first treatment.
Treatment of localized forms is based on surgical resection often associated with radiotherapy and chemotherapy performed by a specialised multidisciplinary team.
Why refer cases for a second opinion ?
Sarcoma diagnosis is notoriously difficult in general pathology practice with reported rates of diagnostic discrepancies ranging from 25 to 45% (Am J Clin Pathol 2001;116:473-476 ; Annals of Oncology 2012; 23:2442-2449).
Inappropriate management may result from misclassification and affect clinical outcomes and/or quality of life.
Thus, a systematic histological review of all primo-diagnoses of sarcomas has been recommended by international groups (UK guidelines, ESMO recommendations). This systematic second review has been shown to be cost-saving (Plos One 2018;13. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0193330).
