Soft tissue sarcoma

Sarcoma is the medical name for a cancerous tumour.

Soft tissue is the medical name for the parts of your body – other than bone – that connect, support or surround other parts. It includes fat, muscle, blood vessels, nerves, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, deep skin tissues and the tissue around your joints.

So a soft tissue sarcoma is a cancerous tumour found in the soft tissue of your body. There is a lot of soft tissue in your body, so where tumours grow is different from person to person.

At first, soft tissue sarcomas don’t usually cause any symptoms.

But as they grow you’ll often feel a lump, which might be painless at first but starts to hurt as it pushes against nearby nerves and muscles.

If you’ve noticed a lump, it’s important to get it checked out by a doctor straightaway. Most lumps in young people won’t be cancer, but it’s always best to check.

Doctors use a range of tests to diagnose soft tissue sarcomas.

MRI scans, CT scans, PET scans and X-rays are all used to find and look at lumps in more detail. You won’t feel anything while you’re having these scans and they don’t cause any pain.

Biopsies are used to take cells from lumps so they can be studied under a microscope for signs of cancer.

You can find out more about all of these techniques in our Getting diagnosed section.

Surgery is the most common treatment for soft tissue sarcoma.

A surgeon removes the tumour and some healthy tissue around it to make sure all of the cancer cells are taken away.

Radiotherapy and chemotherapy are also sometimes used to kill cancer cells. And you might have a combination of radiotherapy or chemotherapy before or after surgery.

Find out more about cancer treatments.

The information on this page is more than three years old.