Sarcomas

A sarcoma is a rare malignant tumour of the connective tissue, namely the supporting tissue (bones, muscles, soft tissues) of the body. The term sarcoma refers to a series of extremely heterogeneous tumours that differ by histological subtype, biology and clinical behaviour and diversity in response to therapy.  In particular, they are divided into two larger groups:

• soft tissue sarcomas (nerves, adipose tissue, muscular tissue, etc.);
• bone sarcomas (osteosarcomas, chondrosarcomas, Ewing’s sarcoma).

Treatment: proton therapy and sarcomas

The choice of therapy for the treatment of sarcomas is complex and requires a multidisciplinary team since it almost always requires a combination of several oncological treatments (surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy) to minimize the possibility of local relapse or the appearance of later metastases and to preserve the functionality of the area involved in the illness to the highest possible degree.

Surgery is the preferred treatment, especially when the tumour is still localized. However, in most cases, it must be proceeded and/or followed by chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy to reduce the risk of local and later relapse and to reduce the size of the primitive tumour in the pre-operative phase.

Proton therapy may be used to treat sarcomas in both the pre-operative and post-operative phase. It is especially useful in children, in the treatment of sarcomas in which radiation could damage the surrounding tissue, and in the case of relapses that cannot be surgically removed.