Soft Tissue Sarcoma

Epidemiology: Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) account for about 1% of all cancers with an estimated overall incidence of 1.8–5.0 cases/100,000 per year [1, 2]. As per the United States SEER data, the mortality rate was 1.3 deaths/100,000 during 2015–2019 with a median age of diagnosis of 60 years [3]. STS was one of the top 5 cancers among children in terms of incidence and death. According to the SEER 2017 data, the 5-year and 10-year survival rates for soft tissue sarcoma were 65% and 50%, respectively [3]. Soft tissue cancer incidence was more predominant in black people (0.5 cases/APT; APT: average calculation over a period of time) compared to white people (0.1 cases/APT). The frequency of soft tissue sarcoma occurrence is higher in males compared to females with an incidence ratio of 1.9:1.0 [4]. The annual incidence rates reached 230 cases/100,000 in the age group of 85 years [4]. For the year 2022, the estimated number of new cases in the US were 13,460 cases (males-7720 cases; females-5740 cases) and the estimated mortality was 5350 deaths (males-2840 deaths; females-2510 deaths). Overall, STS incidence in China for the year 2014 was 2.91 cases/100,000 (males-2.21 cases/100,000; females-2.13 cases/100,000) [5]. In China, 3.1% of STS occur between the age of 0–19 years [5]. During the years 2014–2019, the incidence rate in India was 1% in adults and 15% in children [6]. Based on the histology, STS were classified into different types which include leiomyosarcoma (12% of incidence), liposarcoma (12%), undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (11%), myxofibrosarcoma (3%) and angiosarcoma (3%) [1]. STS may originate from different anatomic sites with nearly 20% such as lower extremity, 15% in the trunk region, 12% in the head and neck and about 8% in the upper extremity [7].